UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


MUSIC    AND    MANNERS 

IN    THE    CLASSICAL   PERIOD 


MUSIC  AND  MANNERS 


IN   THE   CLASSICAL   PERIOD 


ESSAYS 


BY 


HENRY   EDWARD   KREHBIEL 

AUTHOR   OF    "HOW   TO    LISTEN    TO   MUSIC,"    "STUDIES   IN   THE 

WAGNERIAN    DRAMA,"    "NOTES   ON    THE   CULTIVATION 

OF  CHORAL   MUSIC,"    "THE    PHILHARMONIC 

SOCIETY   OF   NEW   YORK,"   ETC 


NEW    YORK 
CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

1898 


Copyright,  1898, 
BY  CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS. 


SEnibcrsttg 
JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.S.A. 


TO 


SIR    GEORGE    GROVE,  C.B. 


377875 


CONTENTS 

A   POET'S    MUSIC 

PAGE 

I.   GRAY'S  MUSICAL  COLLECTION  ....  3 

II.   THE  POET'S  TASTE      .......  15 

III.    LAST  CENTURY  SINGERS  ......  40 

HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

I.   His  NOTE  BOOK      ........  57 

II.    His  ENGLISH  LOVE  ........  95 

A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

I.   SOCIAL  AND  ARTISTIC  SALZBURG.     .    .  115 

II.   THE  COMPOSER'S  DOMESTIC  LIFE      .     .  128 

III.  Music  AT  THE  FESTIVAL      .....  142 

IV.  DA  PONTE  IN  NEW  YORK    .....  159 

BEETHOVEN   AND    HIS    BIOGRAPHER 

I.   ALEXANDER  WHEELOCK  THAYER  ...  191 

II.   THE  BEETHOVEN  MUSEUM  AT  BONN      .  212 


REFLECTIONS   IN   WEIMAR 
INFLUENCE  OF  GOETHE  AND  LISZT    243 


INDEX 265 


A    POET'S    MUSIC 


I 

GRAY'S   MUSICAL   COLLECTION 

Bur  the  two  most  interesting  items  of  the  cata- 
logue are  yet  unmentioned.  One  is  the  laborious 
collection  of  Manuscript  Music  that  Gray  compiled 
in  Italy  while  frivolous  Horace  Walpole  was  eating 
iced  fruits  in  a  domino  to  the  sound  of  a  guitar. 
Zamperelli,  Pergolesi,  Arrigoni,  Galuppi  —  he  had 
ransacked  them  all,  noting  the  school  of  the  com- 
poser and  the  source  of  the  piece  selected  — 
copying  out  religiously  even  the  "Regole  per 
PAccompagnamento." 

It  is  thus  that  Austin  Dobson  alludes,  in 
one  of  his  "  Eighteenth  Century  Vignettes," 
to  a  portion  of  the  library  of  the  author  of  the 
"  Elegy  written  in  a  Country  Churchyard." 
He  is  writing  with  a  catalogue  of  a  sale 
of  the  poet's  library,  which  took  place  in 
1851,  as  his  guide.  The  second  of  the  "two 
most  interesting  items "  was  an  interleaved 
copy  of  the  "  Systema  Naturae,"  by  Linnaeus, 
which  Mr.  Ruskin  exhibited  at  Cambridge  in 
1885,  "covered  as  to  their  margins  and  added 
3 


A   POET'S   MUSIC 

pages  with  wonderful  minute  notes  in  Latin, 
and  illustrated  by  Gray  himself  with  delicately 
finished  pen-and-ink  drawings  of  birds  and 
insects."  This  Mr.  Dobson  had  seen  when 
he  wrote  his  vignette  entitled  "  Gray's  Li- 
brary," but  on  the  precious  collection  of 
music  he  never  laid  his  eyes;  nor  does  he 
know  what  became  of  it  In  1887  the  "  New 
York  Tribune  "  contributed  a  chapter  to  its 
history  telling  how  at  a  sale  of  some  of  the 
books  of  Charles  W.  Frederickson  (since 
dead)  in  1886  the  auctioneer,  Mr.  Bangs,  had 
bought  the  musical  manuscripts  himself  and 
presented  them  to  Mrs.  C.  M.  Raymond  — 
she  that  music  lovers  in  the  United  States  and 
Great  Britain  knew  and  loved  as  Annie  Louise 
Gary.  From  Mrs.  Raymond's  hands  they 
passed  into  those  of  their  present  owner,  and 
they  are  this  moment  smiling  down  upon  the 
writer  from  one  of  his  bookshelves.1  I  pur- 
pose to  draw  a  chapter  or  two  of  musical 
history  from  the  manuscripts  presently,  and 
to  this  end  occupy  myself  first  with  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  nine  volumes  before  me. 

The  volumes  are  each  twelve  inches  long 

1  A  tenth  volume,  made  up  of  fragments  evidently 
found  in  Gray's  desk  after  his  death,  seems  to  have  been 
overlooked  by  Mr.  Bangs.  It  was  sold  in  May,  1897,  f°r 
seventy  dollars. 

4 


and  nine  inches  wide  and  vary  in  thickness, 
containing  on  an  average  two  hundred  sheets 
of  extremely  heavy  hand-made  paper.  The 
edges  are  untrimmed.  The  sheets  are  bound 
stoutly  in  hogskin  covers,  most  of  which  are 
lettered  on  the  back  and  front  in  the  hand- 
writing of  the  poet.  The  music  has  been 
copied  as  a  rule  in  a  bold  style  by  a  profes- 
sional copyist,  but  Gray  has  added  some  airs, 
besides  many  notes,  and  provided  each  of  the 
volumes  with  a  table  of  contents  most  beauti- 
fully and  daintily  written.  The  music  con- 
sists almost  exclusively  of  operatic  airs  from 
the  composers  who  were  the  chief  glory  of 
the  Italian  schools  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Of  them  more  anon.  The  music  is  in  score 
—  that  is,  the  full  orchestral  part  is  written 
out  as  well  as  the  vocal ;  but  inasmuch  as  the 
operatic  band  of  the  early  part  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  (the  collection  was  made  in 
1740)  seldom  consisted  of  more  than  the 
stringed  instruments,  five  or  six  staves  suffice 
to  contain  the  music.  Noteworthy  excep- 
tions to  this  rule  will  be  mentioned  in  the  de- 
tailed description  of  the  volumes.  Gray's 
annotations  are  concerned  with  the  titles  of 
the  operas  from  which  the  airs  were  taken,  the 
names  of  the  dramatic  personages  who  sang 
them,  and  the  names  of  singers  whom  he  had 
5 


A  POET'S   MUSIC 

heard  in  the  operas  or  who  had  identified 
themselves  in  some  particular  manner  with 
the  music.  This  point  cannot  be  determined, 
though  the  circumstance  that  occasionally  a 
date,  and  sometimes  also  the  name  of  a  city, 
is  added  indicates  that  he  intended  by  the 
notes  to  preserve  a  record  of  individual  enjoy- 
ments. 

Commenting  on  the  care  with  which  Gray's 
books  have  been  preserved  by  their  later 
possessors,  Mr.  Dobson  says:  "  Many  of  the 
Note-Books  were  cushioned  on  velvet  in  spe- 
cial cases,  while  the  more  precious  manu- 
scripts had  been  skilfully  inlaid  and  bound  in 
olive  morocco  with  leather  joints  and  linings 
of  crimson  silk."  The  musical  manuscripts 
belong  to  those  thus  piously  preserved. 
Each  volume  rests  in  an  elegant  wooden 
case  covered  with  purple  morocco  and  lined 
with  cushions  of  black  silk  velvet.  These 
cases  are  each  shaped  like  a  book,  tooled  and 
lettered  uniformly: 


GRAY'S   MUSICAL  COLLECTION 

Below  these  panels  follow  the  names  of 
the  composers  represented  in  the  different 
volumes. 

The  history  of  the  collection  since  Gray's 
death  in  1771  lies  before  us  in  a  tolerably  clear 
and  complete  record.  By  his  will  he  gave  to 
the  Rev.  William  Mason  all  his  "  books,  manu- 
scripts, coins,  music,  printed  or  written,  and 
papers  of  all  kinds,  to  preserve  or  destroy  at  his 
own  discretion."  This  was  the  Rev.  William 
Mason  who  published  a  memoir  of  the  poet 
in  connection  with  an  edition  of  his  works  in 
1775.  He  was  precentor  of  York  Cathedral, 
and  in  1782  published  "A  Copious  Collection 
of  those  Portions  of  the  Psalms  of  David, 
Bible  and  Liturgy  which  have  been  set  to 
Music  and  sung  as  Anthems  in  the  Cathe- 
dral and  Collegiate  Churches  of  England." 
Mason  kept  the  music  till  he  died  and  be- 
queathed it  along  with  the  rest  of  the  library 
"  to  the  poet's  friend,  Stonehewer,"  says  Mr. 
Dobson.  The  name  of  this  gentleman  and 
the  names  of  his  immediate  successors  in  the 
ownership  of  the  manuscripts  appear  in  lead- 
pencil  writing  several  times  in  the  volumes. 
One  memorandum  reads  as  follows  :  "  Richard 
Stonehewer  (or  Stenhewer)  Esqr.,  Curzon-st., 
London  "  ;  another,  "  Richard  Bright,  Esq., 
Skeffington  Hall,  1818  "  ;  another,  "  E.  Bright, 
7 


A  POET'S   MUSIC 

May  22d,  1819";  still  another,  "  Revd.  John 
Bright."  Mr.  Bright  of  Skeffington  Hall  was 
a  relative  of  Mr.  Stonehewer  (if  that  name  be 
correct),  and  got  the  library  from  him.  It 
remained  in  the  Bright  family  till  1845,  when 
it  was  first  dispersed  by  public  sale.  There 
were  sales  of  portions  of  Gray's  library  in 
1845,  I^47,  1851  and  1854,  the  music  forming 
a  part  of  the  sale  of  1851.  Mr.  Frederickson 
bought  it  in  England,  but  whether  at  the  sale 
of  1851  or  not  I  cannot  say. 

Here  follows  a  detailed  description  of  the 
nine  volumes  in  question,  the  volumes  being 
numbered  for  convenience'  sake  : 

I.  Inscribed  by  Gray  on  the  cover :   "  Arie 
del  Sigr.  G.  Adolfo  Hasse  detto  II  Sassone. 
Firenze,    1740."       Contains    twenty-five    airs 
from  the   operas    "  Alessandro   nell'    Indie," 
"  La  Clemenza  di  Tito,"  "  Demetrio,"  "  Issi- 
pile,"  "  Artaserse  "  and  "  Siroe."    The  singers 
mentioned  are  Carestini,  Faustina,   Farinelli 
(whom,     save    once,    Gray    uniformly    calls 
Farinello)  and  Tesi. 

II.  Not  inscribed  or  indexed,  but  contain- 
ing  autograph    notes    by  Gray.      The  con- 
tents are  twenty  arias,  two  duets  and  one  trio 
from  "Catone,"   "Tito,"  "  Issipile,"   "Arta- 
serse "  and  "  Siroe  " — all  by  Hasse.     Two  of 
the  airs  are  in  Gray's  handwriting. 

8 


GRAY'S  MUSICAL  COLLECTION 

III.  Gray's  inscription  on  cover :  "  Arie  del 
Sigr.  Leonardo  Vinci,  Napoletano.     Firenze, 
1740."    Contains  twenty-five  airs  and  one  duet 
from   the   operas    "  Catone,"    "  Alessandro," 
"  Semiramide,"      "  Demofoonte,"      "  Andro- 
maca  "   and  "  Artaserse."     Also  a  solo  can- 
tata, by  Vinci,  and  the  following  pieces  copied 
by  Gray:    a  cantata   for  solo  voice  by  Per- 
golese ;  a  "  Toccata  per  il  Cembalo  del  Sas- 
sone  "  followed  by  two   minuets  ;  three  arias 
from    Vinci's    "  Artaserse "    and    one    from 
Latilla's  "  Siroe"  dated  "Roma,  1740";  two 
arias  from  unmentioned  operas  by  Hasse  and 
Giaii ;  five  instrumental  pieces — a  minuet  by 
Giacomelli   ("Roma"),    another  minuet   by 
Hasse    (called  here,    as  was   the  custom    in 
Italy,    //    Sassone,    i.    e.,    "  The    Saxon  ")  ; 
an  arietta  from  an  overture  by  David  Perez, 
followed   by   a   minuet,   and   an  arietta  from 
"Siroe"    by   Latilla,    dated    "Roma,    1740." 
In   all   there   are   forty- four   pages  in  Gray's 
handwriting.    The  singers  mentioned  are  Far- 
fallino,  Carestini,  Farinelli,  Faustina,  Senesino 
and  Cuzzoni.    In  three  of  the  arias  the  strings 
are  supplemented  with  trumpets,  and  one  has 
two  horns  and  oboes  besides  two  trumpets. 

IV.  A  volume   uninscribed   by  Gray,  but 
marked  "  Vinci  "  on  the  back.     It  is  devoted 
wholly  to  a  cantata,  which  is  one  of  the  most 

9 


A  POET'S   MUSIC 

interesting  compositions  in  the  collection. 
Strangely  enough,  though  Gray  has  made  an 
index  of  all  the  musical  numbers  and  added 
the  names  of  the  dramatis  persona  he  has 
neglected  to  give  the  name  of  the  work. 
This  could  only  be  determined  by  its  text, 
aided  by  historical  research.  These  disclose 
that  it  is  the  cantata  entitled  "  La  Contesa  de' 
Numi,"  which  Vinci  composed  in  1729,  at  the 
command  of  the  Marquis  de  Polignac,  then 
French  Ambassador  at  Rome,  to  celebrate 
the  birthday  of  the  Dauphin  Louis,  son  of 
Louis  XV,  and  father  of  Louis  XVI.  The 
words  are  by  Metastasio.  The  characters  are 
Jove,  Apollo,  Mars,  Astr&a,  Peace  and  Fortune. 
The  cantata  is  in  two  parts,  each  containing 
seven  vocal  numbers,  six  solos  and  a  conclud- 
ing Coro  grande,  which  (as  was  the  case  in  the 
operas  of  the  period)  is  an  ensemble  in  which 
all  the  solo  characters  join.  The  first  part 
is  preceded  by  an  overture,  which  Gray 
describes  as  "  a  ten  parti"  the  ten  parts  being 
two  violins,  two  trumpets,  two  trombe  da 
caccia,  two  oboes,  bassoon  and  double  bass— 
the  last  two  in  unison.  The  piece  consists  of 
a  stately  minuet,  followed  by  a  rapid  move- 
ment in  common  time.  The  instrumental 
introduction  to  the  second  part  Gray  calls 
"  Simfonia."  It  is  a  minuet  followed  by  a 


GRAY'S  MUSICAL  COLLECTION 

brief  intermezzo  for  strings  alone  in  common 
time,  after  which  the  minuet  is  repeated.  In 
their  tripartite  form  the  pieces  suggest  the 
overture  form  as  fixed  by  Lully.  In  one  of 
the  numbers  of  the  second  part,  an  extremely 
florid  air,  the  orchestra  consists  of  two  trombe 
da  caccia,  two  flutes  (called  traversieri) , 
violins,  viola,  bassoon  and  bass,  and  there  is 
a  general  direction  that  the  cembalo  (harp- 
sichord) be  not  used.  The  reason  for  this  is 
plain,  for  the  number  has  an  obbligato  part  for 
the  salterio,  that  is,  the  dulcimer,  an  instru- 
ment which  we  meet  with  now  only  in  the 
bands  of  the  Hungarian  gypsies. 

V.  A  volume  of  excerpts  from  the  com- 
positions   of   Leonardo    Leo.     No    external 
inscription,   but  a  full  table   of  contents  in 
Gray's  handwriting.     Leo  being   as    great  a 
composer  of  church  music  as  of  operas,  the 
book  begins  with  four  motets  for  solo  voice 
and  orchestra.     Then  there  are  fourteen  airs 
from  "  Achille,"  "  CiroRiconosciuto,"  "  Olim- 
piade  "  and  "  Artaserse,"  and  two  duets  from 
"  Olimpiade."      The   singers    mentioned    are 
La  Strada,  Giziello  (whom  Gray  calls  "  Egizi- 
ello  "),  Tesi  and  Carestini.     An  aria  sung  by 
La  Strada   in    "Achille"    is   dated    "1739, 
Turino." 

VI.  A  volume  containing  twenty  arias  and 


A   POET'S  MUSIC 

two  duets  by  Michele  Fini  from  "  Issipile," 
"Didone,"  "  Siroe,"  "  Alessandro,"  "Tito 
Manlio,"  "  Rodelinda,"  "  Farnace  "  and 
"  Temistocle."  The  singers  mentioned  are 
Tesi,  Turcotti,  Lo  Scalzi  and  Cuzzoni.  Two 
airs  of  Tesi's  are  marked  "  Pisa "  in  Gray's 
handwriting,  and  a  duet  from  "  Tito  Manlio  " 
is  inscribed  "  Cant :  dalla  Cuzzoni  e  La 
Scalzi,  Bologna."  A  duet  from  "  Rodelinda" 
is  dated  "  Livorno."  The  book  begins  with 
the  "  Regole  per  1'Accompagnamento  "  men- 
tioned by  Mr.  Dobson.  The  "  Regole  "  are 
simple  rules  for  playing  upon  a  figured  bass, 
as  was  the  custom  in  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries.  Amid  the  rules,  which 
are  all  in  Gray's  handwriting,  are  four  pieces 
for  the  harpsichord,  evidently  used  as  studies, 
in  the  handwriting  of  a  slap-dash  copyist. 

VII.  The  inscription  by  Gray :  "  Arie  del 
Sigr.  G.  B.  Pergolese,  Napoletano.  Firenze, 
1740."  Five  opera  airs,  three  opera  duets, 
and  the  whole  of  the  famous  "  Stabat  Mater  " 
for  two  voices  and  strings  are  the  contents 
of  this  volume.  The  operatic  music  is  from 
"  Catone  "  and  "  Olimpiade."  The  singers 
mentioned  are  Farinelli,  Monticelli  and  Vis- 
contina.  The  last  two  Gray  heard  in  London 
in  1742,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  note,  "  Lon- 
dra,  1742." 

12 


GRAY'S  MUSICAL  COLLECTION 

VIII.  A  volume  of  miscellaneous  extracts 
which  Gray  inscribes  as  follows :    "  Arie   di 
Giov.  Orlandini,  Fiorentino;  Franc£2   Araia, 
Dom  :  Sarri,  G :   B :   Pergolese,  Napoletani  ; 
Ant :   Giaii,  Turinese ;    Giov  :  Adf-?' :    Hasse, 
Sassone.     Firenze,   1740."     The  first  aria  is 
in   the    handwriting  of  Gray,    who   tells   us 
that   Orlandini    is    "  Maestro   di    Capella  al 
Granduca "    (at    Florence,   obviously).     The 
three  airs  by  this  composer  are  from  his  opera 
"  Olimpiade,"  and  there  is  a   trio  from  his 
"  Temistocle."      There   are   three    arias    by 
Araia,  one  air  and  one  duet  from  Giaii,  one 
air  by  Sarro   from    "Achille,"    as   sung  by 
Tesi,  nine  opera  airs  by  Pergolese  and  four 
airs  and  two  duets  by   Hasse,  who  fills  the 
place  relatively  in  Gray's  collection  that  he 
did  in  the  musical  life  of  his  period.     Several 
of  the  airs  are   dated   by  the  copyist   from 
1730  to    1735;    one   he   credited  to   Hasse, 
and  Gray  so  entered  it  in  his  table  of  con- 
tents.    Afterward  he  seems  to  have  learned 
that  the  copyist  was  in  error,  for  he  has  put 
his   pen  through  Hasse's   name  and  written 
above  it  the  name  of  Pergolese.     The  singers 
named  are  Senesino,  Barbieri,  Bagnolesi,  Tesi, 
Farinelli,  Faustina  and  Celestina. 

IX.  Gray's     inscription     on    the    cover: 
"Arie    di    G.    Bta.     Lampognani,    Andrea 

13 


A  POET'S   MUSIC 

Bernasconi,  Milanese;  Rinaldo  di  Capua, 
Gaetano  Latilla,  Michele  Fini,  Napoletani ; 
Gaetano  Schiassi,  Bolognese ;  e  altri  Autori." 
The  "  other  authors  "  are  disclosed  by  the 
table  of  contents  to  be  Celestino  Ligi,  Flor- 
entine ;  Carlo  Arrigoni,  Florentine ;  Selitti, 
Neapolitan ;  Dionigi  Zamperelli,  Neapolitan ; 
Baldassare  Galuppi,  Venetian;  Riccardo 
Broschi,  Neapolitan,  and  Mazzoni,  Bolognese. 
There  is  also  an  aria  by  Orlandini,  which  was 
overlooked  by  Gray  when  he  wrote  out  the 
table  of  contents.  There  are  thirty-six  num- 
bers in  all.  One  of  the  airs  by  Rinaldo  di 
Capua  was  copied  by  Gray ;  over  another  he 
has  written:  "Roma,  1739.  Cant:  dal  Man- 
zuoli."  The  other  singers  mentioned  are  La 
Turcotti,  La  Bertolli,  La  Strada,  Farinelli, 
Amorevoli,  Appianino  and  Babbi. 


II 

THE    POET'S    TASTE 

THOMAS  GRAY  was  born  in  1716  and  died  in 
1771.  It  is  plain  enough  that  he  gathered 
together  a  large  part  of  his  musical  collection 
in  1740,  when  he  was  in  Italy  with  his  com- 
panion Walpole,  as  Mr.  Dobson  remarks, 
though  there  is  evidence  in  the  volumes  them- 
selves that  all  were  not  compiled  at  the  time. 
Four  of  the  volumes  are  dated  by  Gray 
1740,  and  another  can  safely  be  said  to  have 
been  made  at  the  same  time,  but  the  inclusion 
of  some  compositions  by  contemporaries  of 
the  poet  who  had  not  risen  to  marked  dis- 
tinction in  1740,  like  Latilla,  Perez  and  Lam- 
pugnani,  is  an  indication  that  Gray  continued 
to  collect  music  after  he  had  returned  to 
England  from  Italy.  As  we  shall  see  pres- 
ently, his  selection  is  representative  of  the 
classic  Italian  school  in  opera-writing,  and 
though  it  is  not  necessary  to  an  appreciation 
of  his  taste  to  believe  that  he  had  heard  all 
the  music  which  he  preserved  (in  fact,  it  is 
'5 


A  POET'S   MUSIC 

extremely  improbable  that  he  heard  some  of 
it),  it  is  nevertheless  plain  that  the  collection 
is  an  index  of  his  musical  predilections  and 
principles.  In  his  biography  of  the  poet  the 
Rev.  John  Mitford  says : 

His  taste  in  music  was  excellent  and  formed  on 
the  study  of  the  great  Italian  masters  who  flour- 
ished about  the  time  of  Pergolesi,  as  Marcello, 
Leo  and  Palestrina ;  he  himself  performed  upon 
the  harpsichord.  And  it  is  said  that  he  sang 
to  his  own  accompaniment  with  great  taste  and 
feeling. 

Gray's  knowledge  of  musical  history  was 
plainly  better  than  his  biographer's.  His 
careful  separation  into  groups  of  the  com- 
posers whose  music  he  collected,  as  Neapoli- 
tans, Florentines,  Bolognese  and  so  on,  is  a 
proof  that  he  would  never  have  associated 
Palestrina  with  men  who  came  upon  the 
scene  a  whole  century  after  his  death.  Mason 
says: 

The  chief  and  almost  the  only  one  of  these  (i.  e. 
Gray's)  amusements  (if  we  except  the  frequent 
experiments  he  made  on  flowers  in  order  to  mark 
the  mode  and  progress  of  their  vegetation)  was 
music.  His  taste  in  this  art  was  equal  to  his  skill 
in  any  more  important  science.  It  was  founded 
on  the  best  models,  those  great  masters  of  Italy 
16 


THE   POET'S  TASTE 

who  flourished  about  the  same  time  with  his  favo- 
rite, Pergolese.  Of  his,  of  Leo's,  Buononcini's, 
Vinci's  and  Hasse's  works  he  made  a  valuable  col- 
lection while  abroad,  chiefly  of  such  of  their  vocal 
compositions  as  he  had  himself  heard  and  admired, 
observing  in  his  choice  of  these  the  same  judicious 
rule  which  he  followed  in  making  his  collection  of 
prints,  which  was  not  so  much  to  get  together  com- 
plete sets  of  the  works  of  any  master  as  to  select 
those  (the  best  in  their  kind)  which  would  recall 
to  his  memory  the  capital  pictures,  statues  and 
buildings  which  he  had  seen  and  studied.  By  this 
means,  as  he  acquired  in  painting  great  facility 
and  accuracy  in  the  knowledge  of  hands,  so  in 
music  he  gained  supreme  skill  in  the  more  refined 
powers  of  expression,  especially  when  we  consider 
that  art  is  an  adjunct  to  poetry ;  for  vocal  music, 
and  that  only  (excepting,  perhaps,  the  lessons  of  the 
younger  Scarlatti),  was  what  he  chiefly  regarded. 
His  instrument  was  the  harpsichord,  on  which, 
though  he  had  little  execution,  yet  when  he  sung 
to  it  he  so  modulated  the  small  powers  of  his 
voice  as  to  be  able  to  convey  to  the  intelligent 
hearer  no  common  degree  of  satisfaction.  This, 
however,  he  could  seldom  be  prevailed  upon  to 
do  even  by  his  most  intimate  acquaintances. 

In  a  footnote  the  writer  adds : 

He  was  much   admired  for  his  singing  in  his 
youth ;  yet  he  was  so  shy  in  exercising  this  talent 
2  17 


A   POET'S   MUSIC 

that  Mr.  Walpole  tells  me  he  never  could  but 
once  prevail  on  him  to  give  proof  of  it,  and  then  it 
was  with  so  much  pain  to  himself  that  it  gave  him 
no  manner  of  pleasure. 

Mr.  Mason,  who  wrote  thus,  was  precentor  of 
York  Cathedral  and  knew  a  thing  or  two  about 
music.  Plainly  enough,  Mitford  had  the  page 
which  we  have  just  transcribed  before  him 
when  he  wrote  his  paragraph,  though  he  says 
that  he  got  the  information  from  Mr.  Price. 
He  attempted  a  little  independent  flourish 
when  he  introduced  the  name  of  Palestrina, 
who,  of  course,  ought  to  have  had  the  admira- 
tion of  a  man  of  cultured  taste  like  Gray  and 
probably  would  have  had  it  had  he  lived  a 
century  and  a  quarter  later  than  he  did,  of 
anticipated  the  development  of  an  art  form 
not  yet  called  into  existence  when  he  died. 
The  flourish  resulted  like  most  attempts  on 
the  part  of  the  musically  illiterate  to  say 
something  about  the  art.  However,  we  must 
be  lenient  with  Mitford.  He,  too,  has  his 
footnote,  in  which  he  tells  us,  as  Mr  Mason 
does  not,  that  Gray  was  not  partial  to  the 
music  of  Handel,  though  Mr.  Price  had 
heard  him  speak  with  wonder  of  the  chorus 
in"Jephtha"  beginning  "  No  more  to  Am- 
mon's  God  and  King."  Here,  is  confirmation 
18 


THE   POET'S  TASTE 

of  a  suspicion  aroused  by  a  piece  of  negative 
evidence  brought  forward  by  the  collection  of 
musical  manuscripts.  Handel's  music  is  con- 
spicuous by  its  absence.1 
^In  all  the  nine  volumes  which  we  are 
studying  there  is  not  one  note  of  Handel's 
writing,  while  there  are  hundreds  of  pages 
of  music  composed  by  his  rivals.  \  Even 
Buononcini  is  mentioned  by  Mason  —  the 
same  Buononcini  of  whom,  in  the  words  of 
the  epigram  generally  ascribed  to  Swift 
but  in  fact  the  production  of  John  Byrom, 
some  said  that,  compared  with  Handel,  he 
was  but  a  "  ninny."  There  is  no  music 
of  his  in  the  volumes  whose  contents  I  have 
marshalled,  but  there  may  be  in  the  volume 
or  volumes  of  the  collection,  if  such  there 
be,  which  are  missing.  In  any  event,  it 
is  strange  that,  while  Mason  and  the  cata- 
loguers of  Gray's  library  mention  the  names 
of  men  who  have  sunk  so  deep  in  the  sea  of 
oblivion  that  we  do  not  know  with  exactitude 
when  they  flourished  or  what  they  wrote, 
they  have  nothing  to  say  about  the  giant 
whose  shadow  threw  all  others  into  eclipse 
long  before  the  singer  of  the  "  Elegy "  had 

1  There  is  the  beginning  of  the  air,  "Hide  me  from 
Day's  garish  eye"  in  the  volume  of  fragments  which  I 
have  mentioned  as  sold  separately  in  May,  1897. 

'9 


A   POET'S   MUSIC 

closed  his  eyes  in  death.  If  Gray  collected 
all  his  musical  manuscripts  in  Italy,  the  cir- 
cumstance affords  an  explanation  which  the 
lovers  of  Handel  can  accept  as  satisfactory. 
As  a  composer  of  operas,  Handel's  fame  may 
be  said  to  have  been  confined  to  London. 
He  began  his  operatic  career  in  Hamburg, 
and  continued  it  for  a  brief  space  in  Italy, 
but  of  all  the  operas  which  he  wrote  for 
London  none  seems  to  have  been  performed 
on  the  Continent.  In  one  respect  he  stood 
in  the  estimation  of  the  people  who  formed 
the  taste  of  the  eighteenth  century  just  where 
he  stands  in  the  estimation  of  the  world  to- 
day. 7  For  us  the  fragments  of  his  operas 
which  remain  have  only  a  curious  interest; 

/  he  lives  solely  in   his  oratorios  and   instru- 

\x  mental  compositions. 

If  we  assume  that  Gray's  active  interest  in 
music  began  when  he  was  eighteen  years  old, 
it  is  more  than  likely  that  he  was  an  active  par- 
tisan in  the  contest  which  brought  shipwreck 
to  Handel  as  an  operatic  impresario.  From 
1711,  when  he  opened  the  Queen's  Theatre 
in  the  Haymarket  (known  as  "the  King's" 
after  the  accession  of  George  I),  to  1734, 
Handel  had  no  opposition ;  but  in  the  latter 
year,  the  time  which  we  have  set  as  the  be- 
ginning of  Gray's  active  participation  in  musi- 
20 


THE   POET'S  TASTE 

cal  affairs,  the  institution  known  in  history  as 
the  opera  of  the  "  British  nobility  "  was  estab- 
lished at  the  theatre  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields. 
Porpora  was  its  director,  and  his  operas  were 
sung;  but  Porpora's  music  is  also  absent 
from  Gray's  collection.1  In  the  next  year 
the  Nobility's  opera  secured  the  lease  of  the 
King's  Theatre,  a  more  serious  rebuff  than 
the  desertion  of  Handel's  singers  to  the 
enemy  had  been.  In  two  years  more  both 
institutions  were  hopelessly  ruined.  Handel 
went  back  to  the  King's  Theatre,  but  he  was 
bankrupt  in  purse,  and  in  1740,  when  Gray 
listened  to  the  operas  of  his  Italian  rivals  in 
Florence  and  Rome,  while  Horace  Walpole 
"  was  eating  iced  fruits  in  a  domino  to  the 
sound  of  a  guitar,"  Handel  was  producing  his 
last  opera,  "  Deidama."  Gray  thus  appears 
on  the  operatic  scene  as  Handel  is  leaving  it, 
and  just  in  time  to  see  Buononcini  (between 
whom  and  Handel  the  author  of  the  epigram 
already  mentioned  thought  the  only  differ- 
ence was  that  "  twixt  tweedledum  and 
tweedledee  ")  run  away,  having  been  caught 
pilfering  the  composition  of  one  of  his  com- 
patriots. When  Handel's  rivals  get  posses- 
sion of  the  King's  Theatre  they  bring  for- 
ward Hasse  and  his  "  Artaserse,"  from  which 

1  Except  one  air  in  the  book  of  fragments. 
21 


A   POET'S   MUSIC 

opera  there  are  three  arias  in  Gray's  collec- 
tion. They  have  also  Cuzzoni  and  Senesino, 
deserters  from  Handel's  company,  and  a  singer 
new  to  London  in  the  person  of  the  incom- 
parable Farinelli,  who  receives  many  men- 
tions, and  Montagnana,  who  receives  none, 
in  Gray's  notes.  Let  us  say  that  the  poet 
hears  all  that  Handel  offers  during  the  last 
three  years  of  the  struggle  between  his  insti- 
tution and  that  of  the  Nobilita  Britannica, 
There  are  revivals  of  old  works  and  six  new 
operas  are  produced  :  "  Ariodante,"  "  Al- 
cino,"  "  Atalanta,"  "  Arminio,"  "  Giustino  " 
and  "  Berenice."  Carestini  sings  the  prin- 
cipal man's  part  (in  a  soprano  voice  —  he 
was  a  musico)  in  the  first  two  operas,  and 
Giziello,  also  a  soprano,  in  the  others.  Si- 
gnora  Strada,  faithful  to  her  master,  was  the 
principal  woman  in  all.  Memorials  to  the 
three  exist  in  the  tiny  handwriting  of  Gray 
on  the  margins  of  the  poet's  books,  but  they 
have  no  reference  to  Handel's  music.  Mean- 
while the  composers  of  the  opposition  are 
Buononcini,  Ariosti,  Porpora,  Vinci,  Veracini, 
Domenico  Scarlatti  and  Galuppi  —  perhaps, 
also,  Lampugnani  and  Arrigoni.  Of  most 
of  these  Gray  has  preserved  some  music. 
It  is  the  golden  age  of  the  Italian  opera,  but 
it  is  more  truthfully  reflected  to  the  judg- 


THE   POET'S  TASTE 

ment  of  to-day  in  the  satirical  skits  of  Addi- 
son  and  Steele  than  in  the  eloquent  eulogies 
of  its  votaries. 

Sic  transit  gloria  mundi !  Of  the  com- 
posers, specimens  of  whose  skill  and  style 
Gray  preserved  in  our  nine  volumes,  scarcely 
one  finds  representation  on  a  musical  pro- 
gramme of  any  kind  to-day.  Search  the 
music  shops  and  you  may  find  a  few  pieces 
by  Galuppi,  whom,  also,  you  may  see  ac- 
claimed in  the  pages  of  a  modern  poet,  who 
walks  upon  the  ice  of  musical  terminology 
without  a  slip ;  his  music  you  shall  not  hear 
though  you  journey  from  Dan  to  Beersheba. 
They  have  put  a  stone  in  the  wall  of  the 
house  in  which  he  lived  in  Venice,  and  some 
years  ago  Violet  Paget,  who  knows  how  to 
gossip  pleasantly  about  music  as  well  as 
many  other  things,  attended  a  festival  given 
in  commemoration  of  the  composer.  There 
was  much  ringing  of  bells  and  unfurling  of 
banners  and  playing  of  brass  bands ;  but  the 
music  was  the  music  of  Verdi,  Marchetti  and 
their  contemporaries.  The  unheard  melodies 
(which  poetical  hyperbole  would  have  us 
believe  are  sweeter  than  those  heard)  in  all 
the  festa  were  Galuppi's.  Yet  he  is  but  one 
hundred  and  twelve  years  dead,  and  as  I 
write  there  lies  before  me  a  stained  and  yel- 
23 


A  POET'S  MUSIC 

low  sheet  of  ruled  paper,  inscribed  in  a  hand- 
writing marvellously  shaky :  "  Credo  a  quarto 
concerto  con  stromenti,  di  Baldassar  Galuppi, 
detto  il   Buranello,    1780."     Poor    Galuppi! 
He  was  seventy-four  years  old  at  the  time  his 
trembling   fingers   penned   these    notes,  and 
in  his  day  had  been   the  admiration   of  all 
Europe.     He   went   to    London  while    Gray 
was  still  in  Italy  —  it  was  in  1741,  the  year  of 
the  quarrel   between    the  poet   and    Horace 
Wai  pole  —  and  stayed  over  three  years.     In 
1765  Catherine  II  called  him  to  St.  Peters- 
burg, gave  him  a  salary   of  four  thousand 
rubles,  free  residence  and  many  other  emolu- 
ments, and  Dr.  Burney,  who  visited  him  in 
Venice  in  1770,  records  that  "Signer  Bura- 
nello has  preserved  all  his  fire  and  imagina- 
tion from  the  chill  blasts  of  Russia,  whence 
he    is    lately   returned."      "This    ingenious, 
entertaining    and     elegant    composer,"    the 
learned  doctor  continues,  "  abounds  in  nov- 
elty, in  spirit  and  in  delicacy,"  and  then  he 
tells  of  the  extraordinary  instrumental  appa- 
ratus used  by  Galuppi  in  an  overture.     There 
were  two  orchestras  which  echoed  each  other, 
two  organs  and  "  two  pair  of  French  horns." 
Burney,   who    had    been    taken    to    him   by 
Signer  Latilla  (also  on  Gray's  list)  showed 
him  his  plans  for  the  great  history  for  which 
24 


THE    POET'S  TASTE 

he  was  gathering  material,  and  was  pleased  to 
win  the  veteran's  approval,  as  also  with  his 
definition  of  good  music  which,  he  said, 
consisted  of  vaghezza,  chiarezza,  e  buona 
modulazionc.  —  "  Beauty,  clearness  and  good 
modulation.  "  Alas  !  what  would  he  say  to 
a  score  of  Richard  Strauss's? 

You  shall  look  in  vain  in  Sir  George  Grove's 
musical  Pantheon  for  fully  thirteen  of  the 
composers  whose  music  Gray  thought  worth 
preserving.  Orlandini,  Giaii,  Sarro,  Latilla, 
Fini,  Bernasconi,  Schiassi,  Selitti,  Zamperelli, 
Giacomelli,  Broschi,  Mazzoni,  and  Lampugna- 
ni,  if  mentioned  in  the  great  "  Dictionary  of 
Music  and  Musicians "  at  all,  are  only  men- 
tioned incidentally.  No  information  is  vouch- 
safed concerning  them,  and  very  little  is 
yielded  up  to  patient  research  of  other 
sources.  Giuseppe  Maria  Orlandini  was  a 
native  of  Bologna  from  about  1690,  and 
Maestro  di  Capella  to  the  Grand-duke  of 
Tuscany.  No  particulars  are  to  be  learned  of 
the  life  of  G.  A.  Giaii,  and  it  is  suspected 
that  he  is  identical  with  a  Signer  Gini,  who 
had  the  same  Christian  name  and  was  a 
chapelmaster  in  Turin  in  1728.  Gray's  copyist 
mentions  Giaii  as  being"  in  Turino,"  and  thus 
gives  support  to  this  hypothesis.  Domenico 
Sarro  was  born  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples  in 
25 


A  POET'S  MUSIC 

1678,  and  was  court  chapelmaster  about  1706. 
For  the  rest,  even  the  names  of  his  operas,  all 
convenient  history  is  silent  Gaetano  Latilla 
was  choirmaster  of  the  Conservatorio  della 
Pieta  in  Venice  in  1756,  and  Galuppi's  suc- 
cessor as  second  chapelmaster  at  the  Church 
of  St.  Mark.  He  is  praised  for  the  correct- 
ness of  his  style  and  his  ability  as  a  contra- 
puntist. Dr.  Burney  received  courtesies  at  his 
hands  in  1770,  and  tells  us  that  he  was  a 
plain,  sensible  man  about  sixty  years  of  age, 
who  had  both  read  and  thought  much  con- 
cerning the  music  of  the  ancients.  In  a 
footnote  he  adds  that  he  was  uncle  to  Signer 
Piccini,  and  author  of  most  of  the  comic 
operas  "  performed  in  London  with  such  suc- 
cess in  the  time  of  Pertici."  According  to 
Laborde,  Michel  Fini  was  a  Neapolitan  who 
wrote  a  grand -opera  in  1731-' '32  entitled 
"  Gli  Sponsali  d'Enea,"  and  two  intermezzi. 
Gray  preserved  an  aria  from  a  cantata  and 
numbers  from  eight  operas.  Andrea  Ber- 
nasconi  is  mentioned  by  Grove  only  as  the 
father  of  that  Antonia  Bernasconi  for  whom 
Gluck  wrote  "  Alceste,"  and  who  sang  in  the 
"  Mitridate  "  composed  by  the  boy  Mozart  in 
I77°-'7I  in  Milan.  He  was  the  son  of  a 
French  officer,  and  took  up  the  study  of 
music  when  he  saw  his  father  approaching 
26 


THE   POET'S   TASTE 

bankruptcy.  His  first  opera  made  a  hit  in 
Venice  in  1741,  and  in  1755  he  became  Court 
chapelmaster  in  Munich.  The  singer  Ber- 
nasconi  was  his  stepdaughter.  Gaetano 
Maria  Schiassi  was  a  violinist  who  composed 
operas  about  the  period  i732-'35,  and  also 
wrote  concertos  for  his  instrument.  Ligi  de- 
feats all  our  efforts  to  drag  him  from  obscurity. 
All  that  we  know  we  learn  from  Gray's  notes 
to  the  effect  that  he  was  a  Florentine,  his 
Christian  name  Celestino,  and  he  wrote  an 
opera  "  Catone."  Carlo  Arrigoni  was  also  a 
Florentine,  and  is  supposed  to  be  the  "  King 
of  Arragon,"  mentioned  among  the  opponents 
of  Handel  in  "  Harmony  in  an  Uproar." 1 
Grove  cannot  prove  his  residence  in  London, 
but  Fetis  says  that  he  produced  an  opera 
there  in  1734.  Geminiano  Giacomelli  was 
Grand-ducal  chapelmaster  in  Parma,  and  pro- 
duced his  last  opera,  "  Arsace,"  in  1736,  at 
Turin.  Riccardo  Broschi  was  the  brother  of 
Carlo  Broschi,  called  Farinelli,  and  composed 
many  airs  for  him.  Lampugnani  was  Ga- 
luppi's  successor  at  the  opera  in  London  in 
1743,  and  was  still  active  as  first  harpsi- 
chordist, compiler  of  pasticcios,  and  singing 
teacher  at  Milan  when  Burney  visited  that 

^'Harmony    in   an     Uproar;    A    Letter    to    F-d— k 
H— d — 1,  Esq."     London,  1733. 

2? 


A  POET'S    MUSIC 

city  in  1/70.  He  is  said  to  have  won  distinc- 
tion by  his  treatment  of  recitative  in  his 
operas. 

Impenetrable  silence  rests  upon  the  rest  of 
Gray's  minor  list;  but  something  like  a  lustre 
shines  out  from  the  pages  of  history  which 
record  the  achievements  of  Johann  Adolf 
Hasse,  styled  "the  Saxon,"  a  German,  yet 
the  foremost  Italian  composer  of  his  day,  and 
the  husband  of  the  equally  famous  Faustina 
Bordoni,  who  figures  in  the  list  of  Gray's 
singers.  To  her  and  her  colleagues  of  both 
sexes  in  Gray's  list  I  shall  presently  pay 
some  attention.  Just  now  one  of  the  causes 
of  Hasse's  supremacy  may  be  noted.  "  When 
the  voice  was  more  respected  than  the  servile 
herd  of  imitative  instruments,"  says  Dr. 
Burney  with  a  scorn  which  is  fine  even  if  it 
makes  us  smile,  "  and  at  a  time  when  a  dif- 
ferent degree  and  better  judged  kind  of  study 
was  perhaps  more  worthy  of  attention  than  at 
present,  the  airs  of  Signer  Hasse,  particularly 
those  of  the  pathetic  kind,  were  such  as 
charmed  every  hearer  and  fixed  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  first  singers  in  Europe  "  (such  as 
Farinelli,  Faustina,  Mingotti,  etc.).  Concern- 
ing Leonardo  Leo  and  Pergolese  enough  can 
be  learned  in  the  ordinary  handbooks,  but 
something  must  be  said  touching  Rinaldo  di 
28 


THE   POET'S  TASTE 

Capua  and  Leonardo  Vinci.  David  Perez 
was  a  contemporary  of  Gray,  and  the  music 
of  his  which  he  preserved  Gray  copied  with 
his  own  hand.  He  was  a  Spaniard,  a  chapel- 
master  at  Lisbon,  and  brought  out  an  opera, 
"  Ezio,"  in  London  in  1755.  He  is  said  to 
have  looked  like  Handel  and,  like  him,  went 
blind  in  his  old  age. 

It  does  not  seem  altogether  right  that  a 
man  bearing  the  name  of  Rinaldo  di  Capua 
should  be  an  eighteenth  century  musician. 
The  flavor  of  romance  goes  out  from  the 
name.  It  makes  one  think  of  knights  in  shin- 
ing steel,  of  doughty  paladins,  of  joustings 
and  tourneys  and  of  dolorous  strokes ;  also 
of  melodious  minstrels,  decorous  damsels,  of 
hawking  and  harping  and  nuptials  with  great 
nobley.  We  hear  Rinaldo  and  think  of  him 
who  was  the  Achilles  of  the  Christian  army 
that  delivered  Jerusalem;  we  hear  Capua 
and  dream  of  the  luxuries  which  erst  threw 
down  the  stern  manhood  of  Hannibal.  Yet, 
after  all,  Rinaldo  di  Capua  was  merely  a 
composer,  albeit  romantically  born  and  a 
sturdy  knight  in  Apollo's  Court.  The  hand- 
books know  little  about  him ;  Sir  George 
Grove's  great  dictionary  nothing  at  all.  Yet 
his  music  rang  pleasantly  in  the  public  ear 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  I  open 
29 


A  POET'S   MUSIC 

one  of  the  thickest  of  Gray's  manuscript 
volumes,  more  than  half  expecting  to  see  an 
air  from  an  opera  entitled  "  Gerusalemme 
Liberata,"  "Orlando  Furioso,"  "  Armida," 
or  even  a  "Rinaldo"  such  as  Handel  com- 
posed; alas,  the  airs  which  Gray  has  pre- 
served are  taken  from  a  "  Demetrio "  and 
a  "  Vologeso." 

It  is  Dr.  Burney  who  tells  us  most  about 
Rinaldo  di  Capua.  He  visited  the  composer 
in  Rome  when  he  was  making  his  famous 
tour  of  the  European  continent  in  search  of 
materials  for  his  great  history  of  music. 
Rinaldo,  he  tells  us  in  his  "  Present  State  of 
Music  in  France  and  Italy"  (a  journal  of 
that  tour),  was  the  natural  son  of  a  person 
of  very  high  rank  in  the  Neapolitan  country. 
At  first  he  studied  music  only  as  an  accom- 
plishment, but  his  father  having  left  him  but 
a  small  fortune,  and  it  being  soon  dissipated, 
he  turned  to  the  art  as  a  means  of  livelihood, 
composing  his  first  opera  at  Vienna  when  he 
was  seventeen  years  old.  Burney  forgets  to 
tell  us  that  he  was  born  at  Capua,  which  fact 
explains  his  name;  being  a  natural  son,  he 
was  not  permitted  to  take  the  name  of  his 
father,  and  had  to  take  that  of  the  city  in 
which  he  was  born,  the  city  whose  luxurious- 
ness  was  the  undoing  of  Hannibal.  All  of 
30 


THE   POET'S  TASTE 

Rinaldo's  operas  are  as  dead  as  he.  Mendel's 
German  musical  lexicon  says  that  only  six  of 
them  are  known,  the  score  of  one  of  the  six, 
entitled  "  La  Zingara,"  having  been  found  in 
Burney's  library.  Neither  of  the  two  works 
from  which  Gray  quoted  is  mentioned  by 
Mendel.  In  Burney's  day  Rinaldo  was  ac- 
credited with  the  invention  of  accompanied 
recitatives,  but  this  distinction  the  great 
historian  denied  to  him  after  he  found 
specimens  of  that  device  in  the  music  of 
Alessandro  Scarlatti.  Rinaldo  did  not  him- 
self pretend  to  the  invention.  "  All  that  he 
claims,"  says  Burney,  "  is  the  being  among 
the  first  who  introduced  long  retornellos,  or 
symphonies,  into  the  recitatives  of  strong 
passion  and  distress  which  express  or  imitate 
what  it  would  be  ridiculous  for  the  voice  to 
attempt.  There  are  many  fine  scenes  of  this 
kind  in  his  works,  and  Hasse,  Galuppi, 
Jomelli,  Piccini  and  Sacchini  have  been  very 
happy  in  such  interesting  and  often  sublime 
compositions." 

Burney,  it  may  be  guessed  from  -this  last 
remark,  was  thoroughly  imbued  with  the 
musical  spirit  of  his  time.  He  had  lived 
through  the  period  described  as  that  of  Gray's 
early  activity,  had  himself  composed  dra- 
matic music  a  few  years  after  Gray  came  back 
31 


A   POET'S   MUSIC 

from  Italy,  and  had  heard  and  praised  the 
new  operatic  gospel  proclaimed  by  Gluck.. 
But  for  him  there  was  no  absurdity  or  ar- 
chaism in  the  style  of  composition  pursued 
by  his  favorite  writers.  Throughout  the 
eighteenth  century  the  chief  dramatic  poets 
of  Italy  were  Apostolo  Zeno  and  Metastasio. 
The  latter  in  particular  was  so  much  admired 
for  the  limpidity  and  beauty  of  his  poetry 
that  his  opera  books  were  composed  over 
and  over  again  by  the  musicians  of  his  time. 
His  "  Artaserse  "  was  set  no  less  than  forty 
times,  and  his  "Adriano  in  Siria"  twenty-six. 
Even  Mozart  resorted  to  him  for  his  "  Cle- 

^ 

menza  di  Tito."  Of  the  composers  repre- 
sented in  Gray's  collection,  we  find  that  Hasse 
and  Sarro  set  his  "  Didone  abbandonata,"  Leo 
his  "  Siface,"  Vinci  and  Hasse  his  "  Siroe," 
Vinci  his  "  Catone  in  Utica,"  Vinci  and 
Hasse  his  "Semiramide"  (Gluck  and  Meyer- 
beer also  set  this  book,  but  Rossini's  libretto 
is  the  work  of  Rossi),  Vinci  and  Hasse  his 
"  Alessandro  nell'  Indie,"  Vinci,  Hasse  and 
Galuppi  his  "Artaserse"  and  Hasse  alone 
his  "  Adriano  in  Siria,"  "Ezio,"  "  Olimpiade," 
"  Demofoonte,"  "  La  Clemenza  di  Tito," 
"  Achille  in  Sciro,"  "  Giro  riconosciuto,"  "An- 
tigone," "  Ipermestra,"  "Attilio,"  "II  Re  pas- 
tore,"  "L'Eroe,"  "  Nitetti,"  "  Alcide,"  "II 
32 


THE   POET'S  TASTE 

Trionfo  di  Clelia,"  "  Egeria,"  "  Romolo  ed 
Ersilio,"  "  Partenope  "  and  "  II  Ruggiero." 
Indeed,  Hasse  told  Dr.  Burney  that  he  had 
set  all  of  Metastasio's  librettos  to  music 
except  "  Temistocle,"  some  of  them  three 
or  four  times  over. 

Very  brave  are  these  names,  many  of  which 
had  done  service  for  Metastasio's  predeces- 
sors, and  right  gorgeous  was  the  stage  furni- 
ture provided  for  the  operas  which  bore  them. 
But  who  shall  tell  the  absurdities  which  char- 
acterized the  plays  themselves  and  their 
musical  settings?  What  delicious  sport  they 
provided  for  Addison  and  Steele !  Read  the 
story  of  the  lion  which  Nicolini  slew  night 
after  night  in  "  Hydaspes,"  and  the  complaint 
of  Toby  Rent  free,  who  wanted  a  reason  why 
he  should  be  treated  differently  than  other  sub- 
scribers to  the  opera.  Having  observed  that 
when  gentlemen  who  were  particularly  pleased 
with  a  song  cried  out  Encore  or  Altra 
I'olta  the  performer  was  always  so  obliging 
as  to  sing  it  over,  he  cried  out  Altra  volta  ! 
in  a  very  audible  voice  and  with  a  tolerably 
good  accent,  after  the  combat  between  Signer 
Nicolini  and  the  lion ;  yet  so  little  regard  was 
had  for  him  that  the  lion  was  carried  off  and 
went  to  bed  without  being  killed  any  more  that 
night.  An'  you  would  laugh  and  realize  how 
3  33 


A   POET'S   MUSIC 

even  in  opera  there  is  nothing  new  under  the 
sun,  see,  with  Addison,  Signer  Nicolini  ex- 
posed to  a  tempest  in  robes  of  ermine  and 
sailing  in  an  open  boat  upon  a  sea  of  paste- 
board ;  be  entertained  with  him  with  painted 
dragons  spitting  wildfire  (O  Wagner!),  en- 
chanted chariots  drawn  by  Flanders  mares, 
real  cascades  in  artificial  landscapes,  and 
real  birds  flitting  about  in  painted  groves  to 
give  verisimilitude  to  Almirena's  call  upon 
birds  and  breezes  to  tell  her  of  her  absent 
Rinaldo : 

Augelletti  che  cantate, 
Zeffiretti  che  spirate, 
Aure  dolce  intorno  a  me, 
II  mio  ben  dite  dov"  2,  etc. 

As  the  writer  once  took  occasion  to  say  else- 
where,1 when  Senesino,  Farinelli,  Sassarelli, 
Ferri  and  their  tribe  dominated  the  stage  (and 
they  are  the  singers  who  ravished  the  ears  of 
our  gentle  poet,  who  sang  a  bit  himself), 
it  strutted  with  sexless  Agamemnons  and 
Caesars.  Telemachus,  Darius,  Nero,  Cato, 
Alexander,  Scipio  and  Hannibal  ran  around 
on  the  boards  as  languishing  lovers,  clad  in 
humiliating  disguises,  singing  woful  arias  to 
their  mistress's  eyebrows  —  arias  full  of  trills 

1  "  How  to  Listen  to  Music,"  p.  240. 
34 


THE   POET'S  TASTE 

and  scales  and  florid  ornaments,  but  void  of 
feeling  as  a  problem  in  Euclid.  If  sentiment 
was  aimed  at  at  all  by  the  composer,  it  was 
only  a  general  mood.  An  air  was  all  gentle- 
ness or  all  fury,  and  whether  gentle  or  furious, 
the  same  flourishes  were  indulged  in  when  in 
the  course  of  the  air  the  beloved  vowel  "A" 
fell  into  the  proper  place  in  the  constructive 
scheme.  Sangue  or  palpitar,  stragi  or  amar, 
it  was  all  one  to  the  composer  and  the  singer. 
It  was  while  speaking  of  the  translations  of 
the  operas  as  affected  by  this  style  of  com- 
position that  Addison  said  : 

It  often  happened,  likewise,  that  the  finest  notes 
in  the  air  fell  upon  the  most  insignificant  words  in 
the  sentence.  I  have  known  the  word  "  and  "  pur- 
sued through  the  whole  gamut,  have  been  enter- 
tained with  many  a  melodious  "  the,"  a/id  have 
heard  the  most  beautiful  graces,  quavers  and  di- 
visions bestowed  upon  "  then,"  "  for "  and 
"  from  "  •  to  the  eternal  honor  of  our  English 
particles. 

As  to  the  artificiality  of  the  form  of  the 
opera,  let  the  reader .  peruse  the  following 
paragraph  from  Hogarth's  "  Memoirs  of  the 
Opera,"  remembering  that  the  different  kinds 
of  airs  referred  to  were  the  Aria  Cantabile, 
Aria  di  Portamento,  Aria  di  mezzo  Carattere, 
35 


A   POET'S   MUSIC 

Aria  Parlante  (also  called  Aria  di  not  a  epa- 
rola,  Aria  Agitata,  Aria  di  Strepito,  and  Aria 
Infuriata),  and  Aria  di  Bravura  (ord'agilita): 

In  the  structure  of  an  opera  the  number  of 
characters  was  generally  limited  to  six,  three  of 
each  sex ;  and,  if  it  was  not  a  positive  rule,  it  was 
at  least  a  practice  hardly  ever  departed  from,  to 
make  them  all  lovers ;  —  a  practice,  the  too  slavish 
adherence  to  which  introduced  feebleness  and  ab- 
surdity into  some  of  the  finest  works  of  Metastasio. 
The  principal  male  and  female  singers  were,  each 
of  them,  to  have  airs  of  all  the  different  kinds.  The 
piece  was  to  be  divided  into  three  acts,  and  not  to 
exceed  a  certain  number  of  verses.  It  was  required 
that  each  scene  should  terminate  with  an  air ; 
that  the  same  character  should  not  have  two  airs  in 
succession ;  that  an  air  should  not  be  followed  by 
another ,of the  same  class;  and  that  the  principal 
airs  of  the  piece  should  conclude  the  first  and  second 
acts.  In  the  second  and  third  acts  there  should  be 
a  scena  consisting  of  an  accompanied  recitative,  an 
air  of  execution,  and  a  grand  duet  sung  by  the 
hero  and  heroine.  There  were  occasional  choruses ; 
but  trios  and  other  concerted  pieces  were  unknown 
except  in  the  opera  buffa,  where  they  were  begin- 
ning to  be  introduced. 

There 's  your  recipe  for  the  concoction  of 
an  eighteenth  century  Italian  opera.     Small 
36 


THE   POET'S  TASTE 

wonder  that  industrious  composers  could 
turn  them  out  by  the  dozen — smaller  won- 
der that  it  finally  dawned  on  some  of  the 
composers  themselves  that  they  were  getting 
to  be  very  monotonous  in  their  music.  And 
here  we  must  shout  a  bravo  for  our  Capuan 
Rinaldo,  who  told  Dr.  Burney,  to  the  evident 
pain  of  that  distinguished  traveller,  that  there 
was  nothing  left  for  the  composers  of  his  time 
to  do  but  to  write  themselves  and  others  over 
again,  and  that  the  only  chance  which  they 
had  left  for  obtaining  the  reputation  of  novelty 
and  invention  arose  either  from  ignorance  or 
want  of  memory  in  the  public,  as  everything, 
both  in  melody  and  modulation,  worth  doing 
had  often  already  been  done.  He  did  not 
except  himself  from  his  censure,  but  con- 
fessed that  though  he  had  written  full  as 
much  as  his  neighbors,  "  yet  out  of  all  his 
works,  perhaps  not  above  one  new  melody 
can  be  found,  which  has  been  wire-drawn 
in  different  keys  and  different  measures  a 
thousand  times."  Bravo  Rinaldo !  Altra 
volta  ! 

Over  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  years 
lie  between  the  times  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci, 
the  painter,  and  Leonardo  Vinci,  the  com- 
poser ;  yet  they  have  been  confounded  even 
by  writers  on  music.  The  painter,  like  Sir 
37 


^77875 


A  POET'S   MUSIC 

Andrew  Aguecheek,  could  play  on  the  "  viol 
de  gamboys,"  but  he  was  not  an  opera  com- 
poser; probably  because  the  opera  was  not 
invented  until  seventy-five  years  after  his 
death,  whereas  his  namesake,  the  musician, 
was  one  of  the  chief  glories  of  the  operatic 
stage  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. He  had  been  dead  about  ten  years 
when  Gray  visited  Italy,  but  the  excellent  re- 
pute in  which  his  music  was  held  is  attested 
by  the  preservation  of  the  cantata  which  he 
composed  in  1729  for  the  birthday  of  the 
French  dauphin.  He  was  a  royal  chapel- 
master,  and  member  of  a  monkish  order,  and 
yet  a  gay  man  of  the  world.  This  was  his 
undoing.  He  died  of  poison,  administered 
to  him  in  chocolate,  it  is  said,  by  a  certain 
noble  lady,  concerning  whose  relations  with 
himself  he  spoke  boastfully  in  public  once 
too  often.  I  have  already  mentioned  the 
originality  shown  in  the  instrumental  part  of 
the  birthday  cantata  "  La  Contesa  di  Numi." 
Burney  says  his  operas  form  an  era  in  dra- 
matic music,  by  the  direct  simplicity  and  emo- 
tion which  he  threw  into  the  natural,  clear 
and  dramatic  strains  of  his  airs  and  by  the 
expressive  character  of  the  accompaniments, 
especially  those  of  the  obbligato  recitatives. 
"Virgil  himself,"  said  Count  Algarotti,  speak- 
38 


THE   POET'S  TASTE 

ing  of  Vinci's  "  Didone  Abbandonata,"  "  would 
have  been  pleased  to  hear  a  composition  so 
animated  and  so  terrible,  in  which  the  heart 
and  soul  were  at  once  assailed  by  all  the 
powers  of  music." 


39 


Ill 

LAST  CENTURY   SINGERS 

ARRANGED  in  alphabetical  order,  the  list 
of  singers  whose  names  are  recorded  in 
the  nine  manuscript  volumes  of  music  col- 
lected by  Gray  is  as  follows:  Appianino, 
Amorevoli,  Babbi,  Bagnolesi,  Barbieri,  Ber- 
tolli,  Carestini,  Celestina,  Cuzzoni,  Far- 
fallino,  Farinelli,  Faustina,  Gizziello,  Loren- 
zino,  Manzuoli,  Monticelli,  Scalzi,  Senesino, 
Strada,  Tesi,  Turcotti  and  Viscontina.  Many 
of  these  singers  are  as  completely  lost  to  the 
world  as  the  composers  who  wrote  for  them, 
but  in  the  list  there  are  half  a  dozen  names 
which  stand  in  letters  of  gold  in  the  history 
of  bel  canto.  Farinelli,  we  have  been  led  to 
believe,  was  the  greatest  singer  that  ever 
lived,  and  one  of  the  things  which  Gray's 
music  can  teach  us  is  that,  taking  the  art  for 
what  it  was  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago, 
the  greatest  operatic  artists  of  to-day  are  the 
merest  tyros  compared  with  him.  It  would 
be  idle  to  attempt  comparisons  on  any  other 
basis  than  mere  technical  skill,  however.  In 
the  arrangement  of  the  names  in  the  list  no 
40 


LAST  CENTURY  SINGERS 

regard  was  had  to  the  consideration  of  sex, 
and  it  might  furnish  amusement  for  an  idle 
moment  if  the  reader  were  to  attempt  to  sep- 
arate the  men  from  the  women.  It  would  be 
a  fair  wager  to  lay  big  odds  against  one  stu- 
dent of  musical  history  in  a  hundred  succeed- 
ing in  making  the  division  correctly.  The 
men  and  women,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  are 
about  evenly  divided,  but  if  sex  of  voice  were 
to  be  the  determining  factor,  instead  of 
physical  sex,  a  very  different  result  would  be 
reached.  Though  half  of  the  singers  were 
men  and  half  women,  nine-tenths  of  the  voices 
were  sopranos  and  contraltos.  The  normal 
voices  of  men  were  not  in  favor  in  the  days 
of  the  gentle  Gray.  There  were  tenor  and 
bass  parts  in  the  operas  of  Hasse  and  con- 
temporary composers,  but  they  belonged  to 
subordinate  characters  in  the  play,  and  the 
singers  to  whom  they  fell  were  not  considered 
of  particular  consequence.  It  was  the  day 
of  artificiality  in  music  as  well  as  manners. 
Handel,  whose  taste  was  cast  in  a  manlier 
mould  than  that  of  his  rivals,  showed  notable 
respect  for  the  bass  voice  in  parts  written  for 
singers  named  Roschi,  Reimschneider,  Rein- 
hold  and  Waltz,  whose  names  are  identified 
with  bass  songs  published  at  the  time.  In 
all  probability  all  four  were  Germans.  The 
41 


A   POET'S   MUSIC 

last  three  certainly  were,  and  the  name  of  the 
first  sounds  like  a  transmogrification  from 
the  German.  Reimschneider  came  from  Ham- 
burg, and  was  thus  announced  by  Handel  Jn 
the  advertisement  of  his  company  in  1829: 
"  A  bass  voice  from  Hamburgh  ;  there  being 
none  worth  engaging  in  Italy."  Yet  basses 
were  more  practicable  than  tenors,  who  had 
no  occupation  at  a  time  when  operatic  lovers 
were  all  sopranos  or  contraltos.  The  musico 
yielded  his  place  to  the  tenor  before  the 
eighteenth  century  expired,  though  he  still 
had  representatives  on  the  stage  in  the  earli- 
est decades  of  the  nineteenth ;  and  now,  a 
hundred  years  later,  there  are  indications 
that  the  monopoly  of  the  tenor  is  at  an  end, 
and  that  the  next  generation  will  accept  a 
bass  or  barytone  lover  as  we  accept  the  tenor 
to-day  and  Gray  accepted  the  musico. 

It  is  the  male  soprano  or  contralto  who 
fills  the  greater  part  of  the  book  of  song  in 
the  golden  age  of  the  Italian  opera.  Por- 
pora,  Bernacchi  and  Pistocchi  were  the  law- 
givers in  the  vocal  art,  and  the  pupils  who 
brought  them  fame  were  musicos.  There 
were  famous  women,  too,  and  though  they 
managed  to  excite  social  wars,  like  that  which 
divided  London  into  two  camps  in  the  oper- 
atic consulate  of  Handel,  they  were  never 
42 


LAST  CENTURY   SINGERS 

quite  the  popular  idols  that  JFarinelli,  Sene- 
sino  and  their  tribe  became.  Of  Gray's  women 
singers  four  deserve  to  be  called  great  — 
Faustina,  Cuzzoni,  Tesi  and  Strada.  The 
rivalry  between  the  first  two  led  to  one  of 
the  most  famous  warfares  on  record.  Cuz- 
zoni was  the  first  on  the  field  in  London, 
whither  she  came  in  1723,  engaged  by  Han- 
del. She  had  a  wonderfully  sweet  voice,  and 
though  not  pretty  of  features  or  figure  she 
enchanted  the  subscribers  to  the  opera. 
Already  at  her  second  performance  the 
directors,  who  had  engaged  to  pay  her  two 
thousand  guineas  for  the  season  (the  story  was 
told  that  she  refused  the  equivalent  of  forty- 
eight  thousand  guineas  for  a  season  in  Italy), 
raised  the  price  of  tickets  to  four  guineas. 
But  the  salary  question  was  made  to  be  her 
undoing.  A  few  years  later,  at  the  very  hey- 
day of  her  popularity  and  height  of  her 
rivalry  with  Faustina,  some  of  her  supporters 
in  the  nobility  persuaded  her  to  make  a  vow 
that  she  would  not  take  a  penny  less  salary 
than  Faustina  received.  She  had  worn  out 
her  popularity  with  the  directors  by  this  time, 
and  they  took  advantage  'of  her  vow  to  rid 
themselves  of  her.  When  it  came  to  a  re- 
newal of  contracts  they  offered  Faustina  one 
guinea  more  than  Cuzzoni,  and  the  latter  left 
43 


A  POET'S   MUSIC 

London.  Had  Cuzzoni's  amiability  been  as 
great  as  her  musical  gifts  she  would  probably 
have  held  out  against  the  rivalry  of  Faustina 
better  than  she  did.  At  first  she  had  the 
town  completely  with  her.  For  a  whole  year 
immediately  before  the  arrival  of  Faustina  in 
1726  her  costume  in  "Rodelinda"  set  the 
fashion  for  the  ladies  of  London,  who  wore 
brown  silk  gowns,  embroidered  with  silver. 
But  she  was  capricious  and  ill-tempered.  It 
was  the  devil  in  Cuzzoni  that  Handel  threat- 
ened to  cast  out  in  the  name  of  Beelzebub, 
the  prince  of  devils,  when  he  dragged  her  to 
an  open  window  and  threatened  to  hurl  her 
out  on  the  stone  pavement  below  unless  she 
sang  one  of  his  airs  as  he  had  written  it.  She 
came  back  to  London  in  1749,  but  never  re- 
gained her  old  popularity,  and  her  last  days 
were  pitiful  in  the  extreme.  She  disappeared 
from  public  view,  and  is  said  to  have  sup- 
ported herself  in  her  old  age  in  Bologna 
by  working  at  the  trade  of  button-making. 
Faustina  had  a  nature  which  was  as  lovely 
as  Cuzzonfs  voice,  and  a  voice  which  in  a 
sense  offered  a  parallel  to  Cuzzoni's  nature. 
She  was  a  noble  Venetian,  beautiful  of  features 
and  form,  with  a  mezzo-soprano  voice  reach- 
ing from  B-flat  below  (one  air  in  the  Gray 
books  goes  down  to  A  natural)  to  G  in  alt, 
44 


LAST  CENTURY   SINGERS 

but  which  was  rather  hard  and  brilliant.  She 
had  a  "fluent  tongue,"  'tis  said,  but  was  wise 
enough  to  use  its  fluency  in  singing  rather 
than  in  gossip  or  controversy  with  opera 
directors.  In  her  warfare  with  Cuzzoni  she 
had  the  men  on  her  side  and  Cuzzoni  the 
women.  The  most  notable  illustration  of  this 
division  of  sentiment  was  to  be  seen  in  the 
household  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  when  the 
noble  lord  fought  under  the  banner  of  Faus- 
tina and  his  lady  wore  the  colors  of  Cuzzoni. 
But  the  lady  was  the  better  diplomat  of  the 
two,  and  used  to  have  both  singers  as  her 
guests  at  the  same  time  without  disturbance 
of  the  peace,  though  eventually  they  did  fall 
to  it  tooth  and  nail  in  the  face  of  the  public. 
The  Countess  of  Pembroke  led  the  Cuzzoni 
faction,  which  seems  to  have  been  the  first  to 
resort  to  such  disgraceful  methods  as  hissing 
on  the  entrance  of  the  rival  singer.  Where- 
fore we  have  preserved  for  us  an  epigram  to 
this  effect : 

Old  poets  sing  that  beasts  did  dance 

Whenever  Orpheus  play'd ; 
So,  to  Faustina's  charming  voice, 

Wise  Pembroke's  asses  bray'd. 

Faustina  married  the  composer  Hasse,  who 
was  ten  years  her  junior;    but  he  was  the 
45 


A   POET'S   MUSIC 

most  popular  composer  of  his  time  and  di- 
rector of  the  opera  in  Dresden  —  one  of  the 
leading  establishments  of  Europe.  She  got 
a  fifteen  years'  engagement  at  the  Saxon 
capital,  and  then  retired.  Dr.  Burney  visited 
her  when  she  was  seventy-two  years  old  and 
asked  her  to  sing.  Ahy  non  posso  /  she 
replied;  ho  perduto  tutte  le  mie  facolta. 
("  Alas,  I  cannot.  I  have  lost  all  my 
faculties.") 

The  contralto  voice  was  held  in  higher 
honor  in  the  eighteenth  century  than  now, 
probably  because  it  was  as  often  found  in  the 
throats  of  unsexed  men  as  the  soprano.  The 
greatest  of  the  contralto  singers,  moreover, 
was  more  of  a  man  than  Farinelli,  notwith- 
standing that  he  came  near  being  Prime  Min- 
ister of  Spain.  Vittoria  Tesi-Tramontini  had 
a  contralto  voice  so  strong,  so  deep  and  so 
masculine  in  quality  that  in  1719,  when  she 
was  engaged  at  Dresden,  she  used  to  sing 
bass  airs  all'  ottava.  Yet  she  was  so  much 
of  a  woman  that  it  is  suspected  that  she  is 
the  young  artist  who  fell  so  violently  in  love 
with  Handel  in  1707  that  she  followed  him 
from  theatre  to  theatre  in  Italy  in  order  to 
sing  in  his  operas.  At  eighty-odd  years  of 
age  the  Tesi  was  still  alive  and  a  resident  of 
Vienna  where  Dr.  Burney  visited  her.  "  The 
46 


LAST   CENTURY   SINGERS 

great  singer  Signora  Tesi,  who  was  a  cele- 
brated performer,  upwards  of  fifty  years  ago, 
lives  here,"  writes  the  Doctor  in  his  "  Present 
State": 

She  is  now  more  than  eighty  but  has  long  quitted 
the  stage.  She  has  been  very  sprightly  in  her  day, 
and  yet  is  at  present  in  high  favour  with  the 
Empress-queen.  Her  story  is  somewhat  singular. 
She  was  connected  with  a  certain  count,  a  man  of 
great  quality  and  distinction,  whose  fondness  in- 
creased by  possession  to  such  a  degree  as  to  deter- 
mine him  to  marry  her  :  a  much  more  uncommon 
resolution  in  a  person  of  high  birth  on  the  conti- 
nent than  in  England.  She  tried  to  dissuade 
him ;  enumerated  all  the  bad  consequences  of 
such  an  alliance ;  but  he  would  listen  to  no 
reasoning,  nor  take  any  denial.  Finding  all  re- 
monstrances vain,  she  left  him  one  morning,  went 
into  a  neighbouring  street  and  addressing  herself 
to  a  poor  labouring  man,  a  journeyman  baker, 
said  she  would  give  him  fifty  ducats  if  he  would 
marry  her,  not  with  a  view  of  their  cohabiting  to- 
gether but  to  serve  a  present  purpose.  The  poor 
man  readily  consented  to  become  her  nominal 
husband ;  accordingly  they  were  married ;  and 
when  the  count  renewed  his  solicitations  she  told 
him  it  was  now  utterly  impossible  to  grant  his 
request,  for  she  was  already  the  wife  of  another; 
a  sacrifice  she  had  made  to  his  fame  and  family. 
47 


A   POET'S  MUSIC 


Of  the  men  singers  in  Gray's  list  the  names 
that  live  freshest  in  musical  history  are  Fa- 
rinelli,  Senesino  and  Caffarelli.  A  few  of  the 
others  are  known  to  special  students,  but  the 


Andante. 


tr.       tr.      tr.      tr.      tr.    tr.    tr.    tr.   tr. 


^ 


tr. 


etc. 


L'aure  che  as-col  -  ta. 

A  CADENZA  BY  HASSE,  SUNG  BY  TEST. 
48 


LAST   CENTURY   SINGERS 

memory  of  the  rest  has  disappeared  with  the 
tribe  to  which  they  belonged.  Of  Appianino 
nothing  has  been  found,  in  spite  of  diligent 
research.  There  are  faint  traces  of  Babbis 
in  the  record  of  singers,  one  of  whom  was  a 
tenor  in  the  second  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  but  he  cannot  be  the  singer  named 
by  Gray,  for  the  copyist  wrote  the  name  on 
the  sheet  in  1740  or  earlier.  Giovanni  Man- 
zuoli  did  not  sing  in  London  until  1764,  only 
seven  years  before  Gray  died,  but  the  poet 
heard  him  in  Rome  in  1739.  He  was  a 
soprano,  born  in  1725,  of  whom  Farinelli 
thought  well  enough  to  engage  him  for 
Madrid  in  ,175 3.  When  the  boy  Mozart  was 
in  Italy  in  1770  and  1771  a  warm  friendship 
sprung  up  between  Manzuoli  and  the  young 
genius  and  his  father.  He  sang  in  a  sere- 
nata  composed  by  Mozart  (then  fifteen  years 
old)  in  honor  of  the  nuptials  of  Archduke 
Ferdinand,  at  Milan  in  1771,  and  in  one  of 
his  letters  sent  to  the  family  at  Salzburg 
Papa  Mozart  tells  how  a  few  weeks  later  he 
was  engaged  at  the  opera  for  five  hundred 
ducats.  No  mention  of  an  honorarium  for 
the  serenata  having  been  made  in  the  decree 
of  appointment,  Manzuoli  demanded  five 
hundred  ducats  more.  The  court  sent  him 
seven  hundred  ducats  and  a  gold  box,  but 
4  49 


A   POET'S   MUSIC 

the  singer  indignantly  returned  both  and  left 
the  city.  Angelo  Amorevoli  was  in  London 
during  the  season  of  1741,  but  most  of  his 
career  was  spent  as  a  member  of  the  opera  at 
Dresden,  where  he  died  in  1798.  Lorenzino 
has  eluded  all  research;  so  has  Farfallino ; 
but  as  the  custom,  which  still  prevails,  of 
Italianizing  the  names  of  singers  was  very 
common  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  for- 
mer may  have  been  a  German  singer  named 
Lorenz.  Carlo  Scalzi  came  to  London,  where 
he  had  sung  previously,  to  join  Handel's 
forces  in  1733.  He  returned  with  Durastanti, 
who  had  been  forced  off  the  field  by  Cuzzoni 
in  1724.  Gioacchino  Conti,  called  Gizziello, 
was  a  sopranist,  and  in  the  front  ranks  of  his 
kind.  He  was  born  in  1714,  and  sang  in 
London  for  Handel  in  1736.  Burney  says 
he  was  so  modest  that  when  he  first  heard 
Farinelli  at  a  rehearsal  he  burst  into  tears 
and  fainted  away  with  despondency.  One  of 
the  prettiest  stories  of  the  enthusiasm  which 
his  singing  created  couples  his  name  with 
CafFarelli's.  This  great  singer,  being  engaged 
at  Naples,  travelled  all  night  to  hear  the 
young  man  at  Rome  who  was  threatening  to 
become  a  dangerous  rival.  He  went  into  the 
pit  of  the  theatre,  muffled  in  a  cloak,  so  that 
his  presence  might  not  be  known,  but  after 


LAST   CENTURY   SINGERS 

Gizziello's  first  air  he  arose  and  shouted: 
Bravo!  bravissimo  Gizziello !  E  Caffarelli 
die  ti  lo  dice!  ("'Tis  Caffarelli  who  says 
so.")  Carestini  was  a  member  of  Handel's 
company  for  seven  years,  from  1733,  when 
he  took  the  place  of  Senesino,  who  had  gone 
to  the  company  of  the  nobility.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  his  career  his  voice  was  a  strong 
and  clear  soprano,  but  it  afterward  changed 
into  the  fullest,  finest  and  deepest  counter 
tenor  that  had  ever  been  heard  in  London. 
He  sang  in  Berlin  from  1750  to  1755,  and  died 
soon  after  he  retired  to  Italy,  having  maintained 
a  reputation  of  the  highest  order  on  the  stage 
for  more  than  thirty  years.  Angelo  Maria 
Monticelli  was  in  London  from  1741  to  1746. 
Gray  notes  an  air  from  Pergolese's  "  Ales- 
sandro"  as  sung  by  him  in  London  in  1742. 

The  books  are  full  of  stories  about  the 
great  triumvirate,  Farinelli,  Senesino  and  Caf- 
farelli. The  last  sang  in  London  in  1738, 
after  the  departure  of  Farinelli,  and,  though 
there  were  judges  who  thought  him  the  equal 
of  that  wonderful  man,  he  was  not  successful 
with  the  English.  Caffarelli  grew  wealthy 
enough  to  buy  an  Italian  dukedom  for  his 
nephew,  and  reared  for  himself  a  magnificent 
palace,  on  the  doors  of  which  he  put  the 
modest  inscription : 

51 


A   POET'S   MUSIC 


AMPHION  THEBAS,    EGO   DOMUM. 


All  readers  of  musical  history  know  that 
at  the  height  of  his  popularity  Farinelli  was 
called  to  Madrid  by  the  Queen  of  Spain  to 


Fugge  il    mi-o  sa 


tr- 


s 


tr. 


-  - 


tr.  tr. 


tr.  tr. 


ngue  al    cuor. 

A  CADENZA   BY   HASSE,   SUNG  BY 

FARINELLI. 

52 


LAST   CENTURY   SINGERS 


cure  Philip  V  of  the  dulness  which  had 
settled  over  his  spirits.  It  is  the  story  of 
King  Saul  and  David  over  again.  Philip 
loved  music,  and  Farinelli  won  so  great  an 
influence  over  him  the  first  time  that  he  sang 
that  he  persuaded  the  king  to  be  shaved, 
look  after  his  raiment  and  attend  to  affairs  of 
state.  A  salary  of  three  thousand  pounds 
sterling  was  settled  upon  him,  and  he  became 
so  powerful  at  court  that  he  was  looked  upon 
as  Philip's  prime  minister.  Every  night  for 
ten  years  Farinelli  sang  for  the  king  in  his 
chamber,  and  sang  the  same  four  songs. 
One  of  these  songs  is  in  the  Gray  col- 
lection. It  is  an  aria  cantabile  from  Hasse's 
"  Artaserse  " : 

Per  quest 'o  dolce  amplesso, 
Per  qnesto  estremo  addio 
Serbamt,  o  padre  mio, 
L?  idolo  amato, 

the  melody  of  which  begins  as  follows: 


Adagio. 


V   %-  -+    & 


etc. 


S3 


A  POET'S  MUSIC 

One  of  the  incidents  of  Senesino's  London 
career  is  told  in  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Mon- 
tagu's sparkling  letters.  The  musico  was 
indiscreet  enough  to  fall  in  love  with  the 
singer  Anastasia  Robinson,  who  became  Lady 
Peterborough,  and  make  protestation  of  his 
passion.  She  reported  the  fact  to  Lord 
Peterborough,  who  caned  Senesino  behind  the 
scenes  till  he  fell  on  his  knees  and  begged 
for  mercy.  "  Poor  Senesino,"  says  Lady 
Mary,  "  like  a  vanquished  knight,  was  forced 
to  confess  upon  his  knees  that  Anastasia  was 
a  nonpareil  of  virtue  and  beauty.  Lord 
Stanhope  (afterward  Lord  Chesterfield),  as 
dwarf  to  the  said  giant,  joked  on  his  side 
and  was  challenged  for  his  pains.'* 


54 


HAYDN    IN    LONDON 


HIS    NOTE    BOOK 

IT  is  known  to  all  readers  of  the  biographies 
of  Haydn  that  he  twice  visited  London.  On 
his  first  visit  he  spent  all  of  the  year  1791 
and  a  portion  of  1792  in  the  English  capital. 
His  second  visit  was  made  in  1794  and  1795. 
The  incidents  of  these  visits  have  been  related 
in  detail  by  C.  F.  Pohl  in  his  book  "  Mozart 
and  Haydn  in  London,"  published  in  1867, 
an  invaluable  help  for  all  who  wish  to  study 
the  music  and  musicians  of  London  at  the 
close  of  the  last  century.  In  the  preparation 
of  this  book  Pohl  made  use  of  a  diary  kept 
by  Haydn  on  his  first  visit,  the  original  of 
which  came  into  the  possession  of  Joseph 
Weigl,  a  well-known  musician,  who  was  not 
only  the  friend  but  also  the  godson  of  Haydn. 
A  similar  record  of  the  second  visit  was  kept 
by  Haydn,  but  this  was  lost,  and  Weigl's 
treasure  was  only  saved  from  destruction  by 
the  carefulness  of  a  kitchenmaid  who  made  a 
final  inquiry  as  to  whether  the  two  little  books 
were  of  further  use  as  she  was  about  to  con- 
57 


HAYDN   IN  LONDON 

sign  them  to  the  fire.  The  precious  auto- 
graph afterward  came  into  the  possession  of 
Pohl,  and  is  doubtless  safely  housed  in  some 
German  library,  though  of  that  I  cannot 
speak  definitely. 

A  copy  which  the  late  Alexander  W. 
Thayer,  Beethoven's  biographer,  had  made 
in  1862  is  now  in  my  possession.  The  notes 
are  contained  in  two  small  books  interleaved 
with  blotting  paper  and  the  copyist  seems  fo 
have  reproduced  the  style  and  form  of  the 
original  autograph  in  every  particular.  Many 
of  the  entries  are  not  dated  and  chronological 
order  is  not  preserved,  so  that  it  would,  per- 
haps, be  more  correct  to  call  the  books 
memorandum  books  instead  of  a  diary, 
Haydn's  purpose  seemingly  having  been  to 
use  them  in  later  years  to  refresh  his  memory. 
Some  entries  are  merely  vague,  mnemonic 
hints  and  one  which  descants  in  epigrammatic 
manner  on  the  comparative  morals  of  the 
women  of  France,  Holland  and  England,  is 
unfit  for  publication.  I  transcribe,  translate 
and  publish  the  entries  not  as  thinking  that 
they  will  add  to  the  world's  knowledge  of 
last  century  music,  but  because  the  utterances 
will  help  to  an  appreciation  of  the  personal 
character  of  the  composer  of  "  The  Creation." 


HIS   NOTE   BOOK 

Needle,  scissors-  and  a  little  knife  for  Mrs.  v. 
Kees. 

For  Biswanger,  spectacles  for  from  50  to  60 
years. 

For  Hamburger,  scissors  to  cut  finger  nails  and 
a  larger  pair. 

A  woman's  watch  chain. 

For  Mrs.  Genzinger,  various  things. 

Plainly  a  memorandum  of  purchases  to  be 
made  for  home  friends. 

Head  of  Juno,  white  Cornelian  6  guinees. 
that  other  white  red  Cornelian  3^  guinees. 
6  Schiots  (?)  8  " 

12  deto  12      " 

Watch  from  gold  30      " 

the  Chen  i        " 

This  memorandum  being  in  English  I  re- 
produce it  verb,  et  lit. 

On  November  5th  I  was  a  guest  at  the  dinner 
of  the  Lord  Mayor.  At  the  first  table  sat  the  new 
Lord  Mayor  with  his  wife,  then  the  Lord  Canceler 
(Chancellor)  the  two  Scherifs  (sheriffs)  Due  de 
Lids  (Duke  of  Leeds)  Minister  Pitt  and  the  other 
judges  of  the  first  class.  At  No.  2  I  ate  with  Mr. 
Silvester,  the  greatest  lawyer  and  first  Alderman  of 
London.  There  were  sixteen  tables  in  this  room 
(which  is  called  Geld  [Guild]  Hall)  besides  others 
59 


HAYDN   IN  LONDON 

in  adjoining  rooms;  in  all  nearly  1200  persons 
dined,  all  with  great  pomp.  The  viands  were 
neat  and  well-cooked  ;  wine  of  many  kinds  and  in 
superfluity.  The  company  sat  down  at  6  o'clock 
and  arose  at  8.  The  Lord  Mayor  was  escorted 
according  to  rank  and  with  many  ceremonies  be- 
fore and  after  dinner ;  his  sword  and  a  sort  of  gold 
crown  were  carried  .  before  him  and  there  was 
music  of  trumpets  and  a  brass  band.  After  dinner 
the  distinguished  company  of  table  No.  i  retired 
to  a  separate  room  to  drink  coffee  and  tea ;  we 
other  guests  were  taken  into  another  room.  At 
9  o'clock  No.  i  goes  into  a  smaller  hall  where- 
upon the  ball  begins ;  in  this  hall  there  is,  a  parfe, 
an  elevated  place  for  the  high  nobless  where  the 
Lord  Mayor  is  seated  upon  a  sort  of  throne  with 
his  wife.  The  dancing  then  begins  according  to 
rank,  but  only  a  couple  at  a  time  as  at  court  on 
the  King's  birthday,  January  6th  (June  4).  In  this 
small  hall  there  are  raised  benches  where  for  the 
greater  part  the  fair  sex  reigns.  Nothing  but 
minuets  are  danced  in  this  room  ;  but  I  could  n't 
stay  longer  than  a  quarter  of  an  hour ;  first,  be- 
cause of  the  heat  caused  by  so  many  people  being 
crowded  into  so  small  a  room,  second,  because  of 
the  wretched  dance  music,  two  violins  and  one 
violoncello  composing  the  whole  orchestra.  The 
minuets  were  more  Polish  than  German  or  Italian. 
Thence  I  went  into  another  room  which  looked 
more  like  a  subterranean  cave.  There  the  dance 
60 


HIS   NOTE   BOOK 

was  English ;  the  music  was  a  little  better  because 
there  was  a  drum  which  drowned  the  blunders  of 
the  fiddlers.  I  went  on  to  the  great  hall  where  we 
had  dined ;  the  music  was  more  sufferable.  The 
dance  was  English  but  only  on  the  elevated  plat- 
form where  the  Lord  Mayor  and  the  first  four 
members  had  dined.  The  other  tables  were  all 
newly  surrounded  by  men  who,  as  usual,  drank 
right  lustily  all  night  long.  The  most  singular 
thing  of  all,  however,  was  the  fact  that  a  part  of 
the  company  danced  on  without  hearing  a  note  of 
the  music,  for  first  at  one  table,  then  at  another, 
some  were  howling  songs  and  some  drinking  toasts 
amidst  the  maddest  shrieks  of  "  Hurra  !  Hurra  !  " 
and  the  swinging  of  glasses.  The  hall  and  all  the 
other  rooms  are  illuminated  with  lamps  which  give 
out  an  unpleasant  odor,  particularly  in  the  small 
dance  hall.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  Lord  Mayor 
needs  no  knife  at  table,  as  a  carver,  who  stands  in 
front  of  him  in  the  middle  of  the  table,  cuts  up 
everything  for  him. 

Behind  the  Lord  Mayor  there  is  another  man 
who  shouts  out  all  the  toasts  with  might  and  main  ; 
after  each  shout  follow  trumpets  and  drums.  No 
toast  was  more  applauded  than  that  to  the  health 
of  Mr.  Pitt.  Otherwise,  however,  there  is  no 
order.  This  dinner  cost  one  thousand  six  hundred 
pounds ;  one  half  is  paid  by  the  Lord  Mayor,  the 
other  half  by  the  two  sheriffs.  A  Lord  Mayor  is 
newly  elected  every  year ;  he  wears  over  his  cos- 
61 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

tume  a  wide  black  satin  mantle,  in  shape  like  a 
domino,  richly  ornamented  in  bands  of  gold  lace 
especially  about  the  arms.  Around  his  neck  is  a 
massive  gold  chain  like  that  of  our  order  of  the 
Toison  ;  his  wife  also  wears  one  and  she  is  My- 
lady,  and  remains  such  ever  after.  The  entire 
ceremony  is  noteworthy,  particularly  the  procession 
on  the  Terns  (Thames)  from  the  Guildhall  to 
West-Mynster. 

Mistress  Schroeter,  No.  6  James-st.  Bucking- 
hamgate. 

Thereby  hangs  a  tale  which  I  reserve  for  a 
separate  chapter. 

The  national  debt  of  England  is  estimated  to  be 
over  two  hundred  millions.  Once  it  was  calculated 
that  if  it  were  desired  to  pay  the  debt  in  silver,  the 
wagons  that  would  bring  it,  close  together,  would 
reach  from  London  to  York  (two  hundred  miles), 
each  wagon  carrying  £6,000. 

Mr.  Hunter  is  the  greatest  and  most  celebrated 
Chyrurgus  in  London.  Leicester  Square. 

Dr.  Hunter  became  Haydn's  friend,  and 
tried  hard  to  persuade  the  composer  to  per- 
mit him  to  remove  a  polypus  from  his  nose ; 
but  in  vain. 


62 


HIS  NOTE  BOOK 

N.  B.  Mr.  Silvester,  Chamberlain  of  the 
Duchess  of  York. 

Que  r  a  mi  tie  so  it  aussi  solide.  N.  B.  Lady 
Blake  from  Langham. 

On  June  3d  1792  I  dined  with  M.  and  Madame 
Mara,  Mr.  Kely  (Michael  Kelly),  &  Madame 
Storace  at  the  house  of  her  brother  Storace. 
Sapienti  pauca. 

On  May  30*,  1792,  the  great  Widows'  con- 
cert, which  last  year  was  given  for  the  last  time  in 
Westminster  Abbey  with  885  persons,  took  place 
in  St.  Margaret's  Church  because  of  the  too  great 
expense.  There  were  800  persons  at  the  rehearsal 
and  2000  at  the  concert. 

The  King  gives  100  guineas  each  time. 

Pohl  gives  us  the  details  of  this  concert  as 
he  does  of  nearly  all  the  concerts  or  other 
public  functions  which  Hadyn  attended.  He 
puts  the  date  a  day  later  than  Haydn,  how- 
ever, and  calls  the  concert,  more  correctly, 
the  annual  benefit  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Musicians.  At  the  command  of  the  King  the 
orchestra  and  chorus  of  the  Concerts  of  An- 
cient Music  participated  without  remunera- 
tion. Dr.  Arnold  conducted,  Cramer  was 
leader,  Dr.  Dupuis  played  the  organ,  and  the 
principal  singers  were  Madame  Mara,  Mr. 
63 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

Kelly  and  Bartleman.  As  was  the  custom 
"The  Messiah"  was  performed  and  at  the 
command  of  the  King,  given  by  a  gesture, 
"  For  unto  us  a  child  is  born,"  "  Hallelujah," 
i  and  "  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  "  were  repeated. 

The  trial  of  Hastings  (Warren  Hastings)  last 
week,  May  25,  1792,  was  the  ninety-second  meet- 
ing in  Westminster  Hall.  Hasting  (sic)  has  in- 
dividually three  advocates.  Each  of  these  gets 
ten  guineas  on  the  day  of  meeting.  The  case 
had  its  beginning  four  years  ago.  It  is  said  that 
Hastings  is  worth  a  million  pounds  sterling. 

On  June  15  I  went  from  Windsor  to  Slough  to 
Dr.  Herschel,  where  I  saw  the  great  telescope.  It 
is  40  feet  long  and  5  feet  in  diameter.  The 
machinery  is  vast,  but  so  ingenious  that  a  single 
man  can  put  it  in  motion  with  ease.  There  are 
also  two  smaller  telescopes,  of  which  one  is  22 
feet  long  and  magnifies  six  thousand  times.  The 
King  had  two  made  for  himself,  of  which  each 
measures  12  Schuh.  He  gave  him  one  thou- 
sand guineas  for  them.  In  his  younger  days  Dr. 
Herschel  was  in  the  Prussian  service  as  an  oboe 
player.  In  the  seven-years'  war  he  deserted  with 
his  brother  and  came  to  England.  For  many 
years  he  supported  himself  with  music,  became 
organist  at  Bath,  turned,  however,  to  astronomy. 
After  providing  himself  with  the  necessary  instru- 
64 


HIS  NOTE   BOOK 

ments  he  left  Bath,  rented  a  room  not  fer  from 
Windsor,  and  studied  day  and  night.  His  land- 
lady was  a  widow.  She  fell  in  love  with  him, 
married  him,  and  gave  him  a  dowry  of  100,000^. 
Besides  this  he  has  500^  for  life,  and  his  wife, 
who  is  forty- five  years  old,  presented  him  with  a 
son  this  year,  1792.  Ten  years  ago  he  had  his 
sister  come ;  she  is  of  the  greatest  service  to  him 
in  his  observations.  Frequently  he  sits  from  five 
to  six  hours  under  the  open  sky  in  the  severest 
cold. 

To-day,  January  14,  1792,  the  life  of  Madam 
Bilingthon  (Billington)  was  published  in  print.  It 
is  a  shameless  exposure.  The  publisher  is  said  to 
have  gotten  possession  of  her  letters  and  to  have 
offered  to  give  them  back  to  her  for  10  guineas; 
otherwise  he  would  print  them.  She,  however, 
did  not  want  to  spend  the  10  guineas,  and  de- 
manded the  letters  through  the  courts.  Her  ap- 
plication was  rejected,  and  she  took  an  appeal, 
but  in  vain.  Her  opponent,  nevertheless,  offered 
her  500^.  The  book  appeared  to-day,  but 
there  was  not  another  copy  to  be  had  till  3  o'clock. 
It  is  said  that  her  character  is  very  faulty,  but, 
nevertheless,  she  is  a  great  genius,  and  all  the 
women  hate  her  because  she  is  so  beautiful. 
N.  B.  —  She  if  said  to  have  written  all  these 
shameful  letters,  which  contain  accounts  of  her 
amours,  to  her  mother.  She  is  said  to  be  an 
5  65 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

illegitimate  child,  and  it  is  now  believed  that  her 
reputed  father  is  concerned  in  the  affair.  Such 
stories  are  common  in  London;  the  husband 
provides  opportunities  for  his  wife  in  order  to 
profit  by  it  and  relieve  his  victim  of  ^£1,000  or 
more. 

The  scandalous  book  referred  to  was  the 
"  Memoirs  of  Mrs.  Billington.  Printed  for 
James  Ridgway,  London,  York  street,  St. 
James's  Sq.,  1792."  It  would  be  quite  as  idle 
to  justify  this  book  as  to  defend  the  notorious 
character  of  Mrs.  Billington.  It  is  a  sufficient 
commentary  on  the  times  that  such  a  book 
could  appear  and  such  a  career  as  that  of 
Mrs.  Billington  be  led  without  invoking  effec- 
tive popular  condemnation;  but  it  must  be 
remembered  that  Mrs.  Billington  was  far  and 
away  the  greatest  singer  of  native  birth  (her 
parents  were  German)  who  had  been  heard  and 
that  she  was  as  much  admired  for  her  artistic 
skill  as  for  her  physical  beauty.  Michael 
Kelly  wrote  of  her  in  his  Memoirs:  "I 
thought  her  an  angel  in  beauty  and  the  Saint 
Cecilia  of  song."  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds 
painted  a  portrait  of  her  in  the  character  of 
Saint  Cecilia,  a  fact  which  gave  Signer  Car- 
pani  one  of  the  prettiest  anecdotes  in  his  "  Le 
Haydine,"  a  book  that  the  scoundrel  Beyle, 
66 


HIS   NOTE  BOOK 

known  in  catalogues  as  Bombet,  shamelessly 
plagiarized  in  his  "  Lettres  ecrites  de  Vienne 
sur  le  celebre  J.  Haydn."  Here  it  is : 

He  often  saw,  in  London,  the  celebrated  Mrs. 
Billington,  whom  he  enthusiastically  admired.  He 
found  her  one  day  sitting  to  Reynolds,  the  only 
English  painter  who  has  succeeded  in  portraits. 
He  had  just  taken  that  of  Mrs.  Billington  in  the 
character  of  St.  Cecilia  listening  to  the  celestial 
music,  as  she  is  usually  drawn.  Mrs.  Billington 
showed  the  picture  to  Haydn.  "  It  is  like,"  said 
he,  "but  there  is  a  strange  mistake."  "What  is 
that  ?  "  asked  Reynolds,  hastily.  "  You  have  painted 
her  listening  to  the  angels ;  you  ought  to  have  repre- 
sented the  angels  listening  to  her."  Mrs.  Billing- 
ton  sprung  up,  and  threw  her  arms  around  his  neck. 
It  was  for  her  that  he  composed  his  "Ariadne 
abbandonata,"  which  rivals  that  of  Benda. 

A  neat  story.  Pity  that  Pohl  tries  to  spoil 
it  by  pointing  out  that  Sir  Joshua  painted 
Mrs.  Billington's  portrait  in  1790,  a  year 
before  Haydn  came  to  London.  The  paint- 
ing was  bought  at  auction  by  an  American 
in  1845  for  five  hundred  and  five  guineas. 

On  the  14th  of  June  I  went  to   Windsor  and 
thence  8  miles  to  Ascot  Heath  to  see  the  races. 
The  races  are  run  on  a  large  field,  especially  pre- 
67 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

pared  for  them,  in  which  there  is  a  circular  (track) 
2  English  miles  long  and  6  fathoms  (Klafter)  wide 
all  very  smooth  and  even.  The  whole  field  has  a 
gentle  ascent.  At  the  summit  the  circle  becomes 
a  straight  line  of  2  thousand  paces,  and  on  this 
line  there  are  booths,  amphitheatres,  of  various 
sizes  capable  of  holding  2  to  3  hundred  persons. 
The  others  are  smaller.  In  the  middle  is  one  for 
the  Prince  Wallis  (sic)  and  other  dignitaries. 
The  places  in  the  booths  cost  from  i  to  42  shill- 
ings per  person.  Opposite  the  booth  of  the 
Prince  Wallis  there  is  a  high  stage,  with  a  bell  over 
it,  and  on  the  stage  stand  a  number  of  appointed 
and  elected  sworn  persons  who  give  the  first  signal 
with  the  bell  for  the  performers  to  range  up  in 
front  of  the  stage.  When  all  is  ready  the  bell  is 
rung  a  second  time  and  at  the  first  stroke  they 
ride  off  and  whoever  returns  first  to  the  stage  after 
traversing  the  circle  of  two  miles  receives  the 
prize.  In  the  first  Heath  (heat)  there  were  three 
riders  who  were  compelled  to  go  around  the  circle 
twice  without  stopping.  They  did  it  in  5  minutes. 
No  stranger  will  believe  it  unless  he  is  convinced. 
The  second  time  there  were  seven  and  when  they 
reached  the  middle  of  the  circle  the  seven  were  in 
line,  but  when  they  approached  some  fell  back, 
but  never  more  than  about  10  paces  and  when 
one  thinks  that  one  rider,  who  is  about  to  reach 
the  goal,  will  be  the  first  in  which  moment  large 
wagers  are  laid  on  him,  another  rushes  past  him 
68 


HIS   NOTE   BOOK 

with  inconceivable  Force  and  reaches  the  winning 
place.  The  rider  is  very  lightly  clad  in  silk,  each 
of  a  different  color,  so  as  to  make  it  easier  to 
recognize  them,  without  boots  a  little  cascet  (sic) 
on  his  head,  all  lean  as  a  greyhound  and  their 
horses.  Each  is  weighed  and  a  certain  weight  is 
allowed  him  adjusted  a  proportione,  and  if  the 
rider  is  too  light  he  must  put  on  heavier  clothes, 
or  lead  is  hung  on  him.  The  horses  are  of  the 
finest  breeds,  light,  with  very  thin  feet,  the  hair  of 
the  neck  tied  into  braids,  the  hoofs  very  neat.  As 
soon  as  they  hear  the  sound  of  the  bell  they  dash 
off  with  the  greatest  Force.  Every  leap  of  the 
horses  is  22  feet  long.  These  horses  are  very  dear. 
Prince  Wallis  a  few  years  ago  paid  8  thousand 
pounds  for  one  and  sold  it  again  for  6  thousand 
pounds.  But  the  first  time  he  won  with  it  50,000 
pounds.  Amongst  others  a  single  large  booth  has 
been  erected  where  the  Englishmen  make  their 
bets.  The  King  has  his  own  booth  at  one  side. 
I  saw  8  Heats  the  first  day,  and  in  spite  of  a  heavy 
rain  2000  vehicles,  all  full  of  people  and  3  times 
as  many  people  were  present  on  foot.  Besides 
this  there  are  all  kinds  of  puppet-plays  Ciarlatanz 
(sic)  and  conjurors  and  buffoons,  during  the 
races  and  in  a  multitude  of  tents  food,  all  kinds 
of  wine  and  beer.  Also  a  large  number  of  lo- 
players  (in  English  it  is  written  Eo)  which  game 
is  prohibited  in  London.  The  races  take  place 
five  days  in  succession.  I  was  present  on  the 
69 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

second  day.  The  sport  began  at  2  o'clock  and 
lasted  till  5,  the  third  day  till  half- past  six  though 
there  were  but  3  Heaths  (sic)  for  the  reason  that 
twice  three  ran  and  each  winning  once  a  fourth 
trial  had  to  be  made  to  decide. 

If  anybody  steals  £2  he  is  hanged ;  but  if  I  trust 
anybody  with  ^2000  and  he  carries  it  off  with 
him  to  the  devil,  he  is  acquitted. 

Murder  and  forgery  can  not  be  pardoned.  Last 
year  a  Pope  (clergyman)  was  hanged  for  the 
latter  notwithstanding  the  King  himself  did  all 
he  could  for  him. 

The  city  of  London  consumes  annually  800,000 
cartloads  of  coal.  Each  cart  holds  thirteen  bags, 
each  bag  two  Mctzen.  Most  of  the  coal  comes 
from  Newcastle.  Often  200  vessels  laden  with 
coal  arrive  at  the  same  time.  A  cartload  costs 
2V^£,~  IQ  J795  (?)  tne  price  of  a  cartload 
was  i£. 

Thirty-eight  thousand  houses  have  been  built 
within  the  last  thirty  years. 

If  a  woman  murders  her  husband  she  is  burned 
alive ;  a  husband,  on  the  contrary,  is  hanged. 

The  punishment  of  a  murderer  is  aggravated 
by  ordering  his  "  anatomization "  in  the  death 
sentence. 

On  January  14,   1792,  the  Pantheon  Theatre 
burned  down  two  hours  after  midnight. 
70 


HIS   NOTE   BOOK 

On  May  21  Giardini's  concert  took  place  in 
Renalag  (Ranelagh  Gardens).  He  played  like 
a  pig. 

Giardini  was  a  popular  violinist.  Haydn, 
always  amiable,  tried  to  meet  him  in  a  friendly 
spirit,  but  Giardini  said :  "  I  don't  want  to 
see  the  German  dog."  Evidently  Haydn 
got  even  with  him  in  this  note. 

On  June  i2th  I  attended  Mara's  benefice  in  the 
great  Haymarket  Theatre.  "  Dido  "  with  music 
by  Sarti  was  played.  N.  B.  Only  a  terzetto,  a 
few  recitatives  and  a  little  aria  were  composed  by 
Sarti.  The  other  pieces  were  by  6  other  and  dif- 
ferent masters.  The  I""1  Dona  sang  an  old  aria 
by  Sacchini :  Son  Regina  etc. 

An  Archbishop  of  London,  having  asked  Parlia- 
ment to  silence  a  preacher  of  the  Moravian  religion 
who  preached  in  public,  the  Vice-President  an- 
swered that  could  easily  be  done ;  only  make  him 
a  Bishop,  and  he  would  keep  silent  all  his  life. 

In  Oxford-Street  I  saw  a  copper-plate  of  St. 
Peter  clad  as  a  priest  with  outstretched  arms.  On 
the  right  hand  shines  the  glory  of  heaven ;  on  the 
left  you  see  the  devil  whispering  in  his  ear,  and  on 
his  head  he  wore  a  wind-mill. 

On  the  Ist  of  June,  1792  was  Mara's  benefice. 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

Two  of  my  symphonies  were  played  and  I  accom- 
panied on  the  pianoforte  alone  a  very  difficult 
English  aria  by  Purcell.  The  Compagnie  was  very 
small. 

In  the  month  of  June,  1792,  a  chicken  7  shil- 
lings, an  Indian  9  shillings,  a  dozen  larks  i  Cor  on. 
N.  B.  If  plucked  a  duck  5  shillings. 

On  the  3d  of  June,  being  the  eve  of  the  King's 
birthday,  all  the  bells  in  London  are  rung  from 
8  o'clock  in  the  morning  till  9,  and  so  also  in 
honor  of  the  Queen. 

February  8th  1792  the  first  Ancient  Concert 
took  place. 

On  the  13*  of  February  the  Professional  Con- 
certs began. 

The  1 7th  Salomon's  Concert. 

ANECTOD.  (sic)  At  a  grand  concert  as  the 
director  was  about  to  begin  the  first  number  the 
kettledrummer  called  loudly  to  him,  asking  him  to 
wait  a  moment,  because  his  two  drums  were  not 
in  tune.  The  leader  could  not  and  would  not 
wait  any  longer,  and  told  the  drummer  to  transpose 
for  the  present. 

While  Mr.  Fox  was  seeking  votes  to  elect  him 
to  Parliament  a  citizen  told  him  that  instead  of 
72 


HIS  NOTE  BOOK 

a  vote  he  would  give   him  a  rope.     Fox  replied 
that  he  would  not  rob  him  of  an  heirloom. 

Duchess  of  Devonchire  (Devonshire),  his  pro- 
tector. Anecdote  about  the  foot  under  her  petti- 
coat. 

N.  B.  from  Wurmland : 

Quoties  cum  stercore  certo  vico  vel  vincor  semper 
ego  maculor. 

Ex  nihilo  nihil fit, 

Domine,  praxis  est  multiplex,  qui  n'  intelligit  est 
simplex. 

Stella  a  stella  differt  claritate,  non  eadem  lux 
omnibus. 

Lord,  all  is  not  light  that  lightens  ! 

Interesse  toto  mundo 
Sin  fronte  colitur 

Sine  satis,  sine  fundo 
Interque  quaeritur. 

Mel  in  core,  verba  lactis 

Fel  in  corde,fraus  infactis. 
Superernumerarius  —  the  fifth  wheel  of  a  wagon. 
Mens,  ratio,  et  consilium  in  senibus  est. 
Si   nisi  non   esset,  perfectus  quilibet  esset  raro 
sunt  visi  qui  caruere  nisi. 

* 

Eight    days   before    Pentecost    I    heard    4,000 
charity   children    sing   the    following   song  in    St. 
Paul's  Church.     One   performer   beat  time  to  it. 
73 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

No  music  has  ever  moved  me  so  much  in  my  life 
as  this  devotional  and  innocent  piece  : 


p  Adagio. 

\    Jf    V  8   yti- 

—  1  1 

hA  »-a-e-^ 

s\ 

~^^  —  » 

1 


N.  B.  —  All  the  children  are  newly  clad,  and 
walk  in  in  procession.  The  organist  played  the 
melody  neatly  and  simply,  and  then  all  began  to 
sing  at  once. 

Haydn's  experience  at  this  meeting  of  the 
charity  children  has  been  the  subject  of  much 
comment  in  England.  His  sensations  at 
hearing  the  music  of  the  children  and  other 
choristers  were  duplicated  half  a  century  later 
in  Berlioz,  who  wrote  a  description  of  the 
meeting  of  1 85 1  for  the  "  Journal  des  Debats," 
and  told  how  he  put  on  a  surplice,  took 
a  place  among  the  bass  singers,  and  was  so 
moved  by  the  stupendous  sonority  of  the 
choir  that,  "  like  Agamemnon  with  his  toga," 
74 


HIS   NOTE   BOOK 

he  hid  his  face  behind  his  music-book.  Du- 
prez,  the  tenor,  who  was  also  present,  grew 
terribly  excited.  Berlioz  says :  "  I  never  saw 
Duprez  in  such  a  state.  He  stammered, 
wept  and  raved."  J.  B.  Cramer  was  also 
present,  and,  rushing  up  to  Berlioz  as  he  was 
leaving  the  cathedral,  shouted :  Cosa  stu- 
pcnda!  Stupenda !  La  gloria  dell'  Inghil- 
terra.  ("  Stupendous !  Stupendous !  The 
glory  of  England  !  ")  At  the  meeting  which 
Haydn  attended  the  children  also  sang  the 
"  Old  Hundredth "  Psalm.  The  hymn  of 
which  he  notes  the  melody  is  Jones's  Chant. 
John  Jones  was  organist  of  St.  Paul's  at  the 
time.  The  chant  has  since  been  supplanted. 
It  is  singular  that  Haydn  wrote  down  the 
melody  in  the  key  of  E,  though  it  was  sung 
in  D. 


In 
London. 


the  year  1791   22  thousand  persons  died  in\ 

M-*  ' 


Lokhart  (Lockhart)  blind  organist. 

Io  vi  mando  questo  foglio 
Dalle  lagrime  rigato, 
Sotto  scritto  dal  cordoglio 
Dai  peusieri  sigillato 
Testimento  del  mio  amore 
(Io)  vi  mando  questo  core. 
75 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

February  13th  1792,  the  first  Professional  Con- 
cert took  place. 

On  the  17th  Salomon's  Concert. 

On  the  evening  of  March  2Oth,  1792,  there  was 
a  thunderstorm.  An  unusual  thing  in  London. 

An  apprentice  generally  works  all  the  year  round 
from  6  o'clock  in  the  morning  till  6  in  the  even- 
ing, and  in  this  time  has  not  more  than  an  hour 
and  a  half  at  his  own  disposition.  He  gets  a 
guinea  a  week,  but  must  find  himself.  Many  are 
paid  by  the  piece,  but  every  quarter  of  an  hour  of 
absence  is  docked.  Blacksmiths'  apprentices  are 
obliged  to  work  an  hour  a  day  longer. 

To-day,  June  4,  1792,  I  was  in  Vauxhall  where 
the  birthday  of  the  King  was  celebrated.  Over 
30,000  lamps  were  burning,  but  very  few  people 
were  present,  owing  to  the  cold.  The  place  and 
its  diversions  have  no  equal  in  the  world.  There 
are  155  dining  booths  scattered  about,  all  very 
neat,  and  each  comfortably  seating  six  persons. 
There  are  very  large  alleys  of  trees,  the  branches 
meeting  overhead  in  a  splendid  roof  of  foliage. 
Coffee  and  milk  cost  nothing.  You  pay  half  a 
crown  for  admission.  The  music  is  fairly  good. 
A  stone  statue  of  Handel  is  to  be  seen.  On  the 
2d  inst.  there  was  a  masked  ball ;  the  manage- 
ment made  3,000  guineas  in  a  single  night. 
76 


HIS   NOTE   BOOK 


Singers  in  London. 

Compositores. 

Mara 

Bacchierotti 

Baumgarten 

Storace 

Kelly 

dementi 

Billingthon 

Davide 

Dussok.  Dussek 

Cassentini 

Albertarelli 

Girowetz 

Lops  N.  B. 

Dorelli 

Choris 

Negri 

Lazarini,  (in  the  Pan- 

Burny Dr. 

Celestini 

theon) 

Hiilmandel 

Choris 

Mazzanti 

Graff 

Benda 

Morelli 

Dittenhoffer 

Mrs.  Barthelemon  and 

Calcagni 

Storace 

the  daughter 

Croutsch 

Arnold 

Schinotti 

Harrison 

Barthelemon 

Maffei  [bella,  ma  poco 

Simoni 

Schield  * 

musica] 

Miss  Pool 

Carter  * 

Capelletti 

Miss  Barck 

Cramer 

Davis     (detta     Ingle- 

Mrs.  Bland 

Tomich 

sina,  la  quale   Re- 

Frike,       No. 

citava     a      Napoli 

Blandford-Street 

quando    I'aveva    13 

Manchester 

anni  ella    t   adesso 

Square 

•vecchietta     ma     ha 

una  buona  scola). 

24 


Mad.  Seconda  passabile 
Badini,  poet. 


e  la  Trobe   dedicated   his    piano- 
•£     forte  sonatas  to  me. 
£  Mazini  at  the  pianoforte  in  the 
g     Panetheon. 
Friderici 
Burney  Titschfield  Street 


Pianists. 

Violinists.        Violoncellists. 

dementi 

Salomon               Grosdill 

Duschek 

Cramer                 Menel 

Girowetz 
Diettenhofer 
Burney 
Mrs.  Burney 

Clement,  petit    Mara 
Barthelemon       Sperati 
Schield                Scramb 
Hindmarsh,  Ingl. 

77 

Doctors. 

Burney 

Hess,  in  Oxford. 
Arnold 

Dupuis,  a  great 
organist. 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

Pianists.  Violinists. 

Hiillmandl 

Graff,         also    Scheener  (Germ.) 

flautist 
Miss  Barthele-    Raimondi  (Ital.) 

mon 

Cramer  Serra  of  Mar- 

Miss  Jansa.  quis  Durazzo 

Humel,         of    Borghi 

Vienna  Giornowichi 

Lenz,  still  very  Felix,  Janievicz 

young.  Jarowez 

Giardini 

Two  pages  of  one  of  the  note  books  are 
filled  with  this  list  of  singers,  instrumentalists 
and  composers  in  London.  The  added  com- 
ments are  as  follows :  "  Maflfei :  Pretty,  but 
a  poor  musician."  "  Davis,  called  the  English 
woman,  sang  at  Naples  when  she  was  thirteen 
years  old.  She  is  now  old  but  she  has  a  good 
school."  "  Madame  Seconda,  tolerable." 
Other  remarks  have  been  given  in  trans- 
lation. 

The  "  little "  Clement  was  a  boy  violinist 
who  grew  into  the  famous  artist  for  whom 
Beethoven  wrote  his  violin  concerto,  who 
played  it  at  sight  at  the  rehearsal  and  at  the 
revision  of  "  Fidelio  "  at  Prince  Lichnowsky's 
house  played  the  whole  first  violin  part  from 
memory. 

Krumpholz,    harpist.     Mr.   Blumb,   imitated   a 
78 


HIS   NOTE   BOOK 

parrot  and  accompanied  himself  admirably  on  the 
pianoforte. 

Mrs.  de  la  Valle,  a  pupil  of  Krumpholz,  plays 
not  quite  so  well  as  Madame  Krumpholz.  Plays 
the  pianoforte.  Her  sister-in-law  plays  the  violin 
very  nicely. 

Mr.  Antis,  Bishop  and  a  little  compositor 
Nicolai,  Royal  Chamberlain  and  compositor. 
Hartman,   flute  player,  had  to  leave   England 

because  of  poverty,  lost  his  wife  by  death,  finally 

turned  out  a  rascal. 

On  the  3ist  of  December  I  was  with  Pleyl  in 
the  Pantheon.  They  played  "  La  Pastorella 
Nobile  "  by  Guglielmi.  Madame  Casentini  played 
the  first  role  and  Lazarini,  primo  huomo  (sic). 
The  lean  Calvesi  fultima  parte.  The  opera  did 
not  please ;  neither  did  the  ballet  despite  the  great 
Hillisbury. 

Ambaschiador  (Ambassador)  the  Count  de 
Stadion. 

Prince  de  Castelcicala,  of  Naples,  the  Marquis 
•  del  Campo,  of  Spain. 

My  friend,  you  think  I  love  you ;  in  truth,  you 
are  not  mistaken. 

In  solitude,  too,  there  are  divinely  lovely  duties, 
and  to  perform  them  in  quiet  is  more  than  wealth. 
79 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

Begehre  nicht  ein  Gliick  zu  gross 
Und  nicht  ein  Weib  zu  schonj 

Der  Himmel  mochte  dir  dies  Loos 
Im  Zorne  zugestehn. 

(Do  not  desire  too  great  happiness  or  a  too 
lovely  wife.  Heaven  might,  in  anger,  grant  your 
wish  !) 

Wer  mit  Vernuft  betrachf  den  Wechsel  aller  Sachen, 
Denkan  kein  Gliick  nicht  Fr oh,  kein  Ungliick  traurigmachen. 

(Who  wisely  observes  the  whirligig  of  things 
cannot  be  made  happy  by  good  fortune  or  un- 
happy by  bad.) 

Infra  in  gaudium  habeo,  et  non  habeor.  Re- 
surgam.  In  Coeloquies. 

Chi  ben  commincia  ha  la  meta  delf  opera,  ne  si 
commincia  ben  se  in  dal  cielo. 

(An  Italian  form  of  "  Well  begun  is  half  done.") 

Gott  im  Herz,  ein  gut  Weibchen  im  Arm, 
Jenes  macht  selig,  dieses  ganz  warm. 

(God  in  one's  heart,  a  good  little  wife  in  one's 
arm  —  the  first  brings  salvation,  the  second 
warmth.) 

With  the  warmth  of  genuine  friendship  I  com- 
mend myself  to  you.  This  as  a  souvenir  of — 


XV 

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Ken  -    ne       Gott, 
80 

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und 

HIS   NOTE   BOOK 


IP 

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+— 

ESJE: 

dich,     lieb  -  ster  Freund,  und      denk    -   an 


/5     7                     ^         i 

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mich,  und     denk  -  an      mich,     Ken  -  ne 

f-    -f-  -  D.  C. 


£ 


Gott,  die  welt   und  dich,  lieb  -  ster  Freund. 

The  music  is  a  canon  in  the  octave,  the 
second  voice  entering  on  the  third  beat  of 
the  third  measure. 

In  31  years  38,000  houses  have  been  built  in\ 
London. 

Painters.     Messrs.  Ott  and  Guttenbrun. 

On  November  5  the  boys  celebrated  the  day  on 
which  the  Guys  set  fire  to  the  town. 

Haydn   has   seen    a   celebration   of    Guy 
Favvkes'  Day  and  is  shaky  in  his  history. 

Kozwarra. 

Beginning  of  May,  1792,  Lord  Barryrnore  gave  \ 
a  ball  that  cost  5,000  guineas.     He  paid   1,000 
6  81 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

guineas   for    1,000    peaches;    2,000    baskets   of 
gooseberries  cost  5  shillings  apiece. 

Prince  of  Wales's  punch.  —  One  bottle  cham- 
pagne, one  bottle  Burgundy,  one  bottle  rum,  ten 
lemons,  two  oranges,  pound  and  a  half  of  sugar. 

On  the  23d  of  June,  1792,  the  Duchess  of  York 
gave  a  dinner  under  a  tent  in  her  garden  for  180 
persons.  I  saw  it. 

La  risposta  del  S.  Marchesi  sopra  una  lettera 
del  S.  Gallini.  NelF  anno  1791  ho  ricevuto  la 
sua  gentilissima  lettera.  buona  Notte. 

Marchesi. 

When  a  Quaker  goes  to  Court  he  pays  the  door- 
keeper to  take  his  hat  off  for  him ;  for  a  Quaker 
never  doffs  his  hat  to  anybody.  When  the  King's 
tax  is  to  be  paid  an  official  enters  his  house  and 
in  his  presence  robs  him  of  as  much  property  as 
represents  the  tax  in  value.  As  the  disguised 
thief  is  about  to  go  out  of  the  door  with  the  goods 
the  Quaker  calls  him  back  and  asks :  "  How 
much  money  do  you  want  for  the  stolen  goods  ?  " 
The  official  demands  the  amount  of  the  tax,  and 
in  this  way  the  Quaker  pays  the  King's  tax. 

Anno    1791    the   last   great   concert,  with  885 
persons,  was  held  in  Westminster.     Anno  1792  it 
was  transferred  to  St.  Margaret's  Chapel,  with  200 
performers.     This  evoked  criticism. 
82 


HIS   NOTE   BOOK 

Haydn   refers  here  to  the   Handel   Com-   \ 
memoration.      The   first   of    these    gigantic 
affairs,  as  they  were  then  considered,  took/ 
place  in  Westminster  Abbey  in  1784.     Haydn 
attended  that  of  1791,  and  was  tremendously 
impressed   by   the   grandeur   of  the   perfor- 
mance.    He  had  a  good  place  near  the  King's 
box,  and  when  the  "  Hallelujah  Chorus"  was 
sung  he  wept  like  a  child  and  exclaimed,  "  He 
is  the  master  of  us  all !  " 

On  the  4th  of  August  I  went  into  the  country 
twelve  miles  from  London  to  visit  the  banker, 
Mr.  Brassey,  and  remained  five  weeks.  I  was 
very  well  entertained.  N.  B.  Mr.  Brassey  once 
cursed  because  he  enjoyed  too  much  happiness  in 
this  world. 

In  order  to  preserve  milk  for  a  long  time  take 
a  bottle  full  of  milk  and  place  it  in  a  vessel  of 
earthenware  or  copper  containing  sufficient  water 
to  cover  the  bottle  up  to  a  little  above  the  middle ; 
then  place  it  over  a  fire  and  let  it  boil  half  an 
hour.  Take  the  bottle  out  and  seal  it  so  that  no 
air  may  enter  it.  In  this  manner  milk  can  be  kept 
for  many  months.  N.  B.  The  bottle  must  be 
securely  corked  before  it  is  put  in  the  water. 
This  was  told  me  by  a  sea  captain. 

On  March  26,  at  a  concert  by  Mr.  Barthelemon, 
an   English   Pop  was   present  who   fell   into  the 
83 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 
profoundest  melancholy  on  hearing  the  Andante : 


^N 


etc. 

because  he  had  dreamed  the  night  before  that 
this  Andante  was  a  premonition  of  his  death.  He 
left  the  company  at  once  and  took  to  his  bed. 
To-day,  on  April  25,  I  learned  from  Mr.  Bar- 
thelemon  that  this  evangelical  priest  had  died. 

The  Andante  is  from  the  Symphony  in  D 
major,  which  is  numbered  23  in  the  list  of 
Breitkopf  and  Hartel.  Pop  is  an  Austrian 
colloquialism  for  priest.  Pop,  Pabst,  Pfaffe. 
The  concert  was  not  Barthelemon's,  but  Miss 
Corn's,  says  Pohl. 

On  the  24th  of  9  ber  (November)  I  was  invited 
by  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  visit  his  brother,  the 
Duke  of  York,  at  Eatland  (Oatlands).  I  remained 
two  days  and  enjoyed  many  marks  of  graciousness 
and  honor  from  the  Prince  of  Wales  as  well  as  the 
Duchess,  who  is  a  daughter  of  the  King  of  Prussia. 
The  little  castle,  eighteen  miles  from  London,  lies 
upon  an  upland  and  commands  a  glorious  view. 
Besides  many  beauties  there  is  a  remarkable  grotto 
which  cost  ^2 5, ooo  sterling.  It  took  eleven  years 
to  build  it.  It  is  not  very  large  and  contains  many 
diversions,  and  has  flowing  water  from  different 
84 


HIS  NOTE   BOOK 

directions,  a  beautiful  English  garden,  many  en- 
trances and  exits,  besides  a  neat  bath.  The  Duke 
bought  the  property  for  ,£47,000  sterling.  On 
the  third  day  the  Duke  had  me  taken  twelve  miles 
toward  town  with  his  own  horses.  The  Prince 
of  Wales  asked  for  my  portrait.  For  two  days  we 
made  music  for  four  hours  each  evening,  i.  e., 
from  10  o'clock  till  two  hours  after  midnight. 
Then  we  had  supper,  and  at  3  o'clock  we  went  to 
bed. 

On  the  30*  I  was  three  days  in  the  country  a 
hundred  miles  from  London,  with  Sir  Patric  Blak 
(Patrick  Blake).  In  going  I  passed  the  town  of 
Cambridge,  inspected  all  the  universities,  which 
are  built  conveniently  in  a  row  but  separately. 
Each  university  has  back  of  it  a  very  roomy  and 
beautiful  garden,  besides  stone  bridges,  in  order  to 
afford  passage  over  the  stream  which  winds  past. 
The  King's  Chapel  is  famous  for  its  carvings.  It 
is  all  of  stone,  but  so  delicate  that  nothing  more 
beautiful  could  have  been  made  of  wood.  It  has 
endured  already  four  hundred  years,  and  every- 
body judges  its  age  at  about  ten  years,  because  of 
the  firmness  and  peculiar  whiteness  of  the  stone. 
The  students  bear  themselves  like  those  at  Oxford, 
but  it  is  said  they  have  better  instructors.  There 
are  in  all  eight  hundred  students. 

When  two  persons  of  opposite  sexes  love  each 
other  and  receive  permission  to  many  from  the 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

secular  courts,  the  Pop  is  obliged  to  marry 
them  as  soon  as  they  appear  in  church,  even 
though  they  have  loved  against  the  wishes  of  their 
parents.  If  he  does  not  the  bridegroom  and  bride 
have  the  right  as  soon  as  he  is  out  of  the  church 
to  tear  his  robes  off  his  body,  and  then  the  Pop 
is  degraded  and  forever  disqualified. 

The  obligation  for  1000  florins  deposited  with 
Prince  Esterhazi  bears  date  July  10,  1791. 

Covent  garden  is  the  National  Theatre.  On  the 
ioth  of  December  I  attended  the  opera  called 
"  The  Woodman."  It  was  on  the  day  that  the  life 
story  of  Madam  Bilington,  good  and  bad,  had 
been  announced.  Such  impertinent  enterprises 
are  generally  undertaken  for  selfish  interests.  She 
sang  timidly  this  evening  but  very  well.  The  first 
tenor  has  a  good  voice  and  a  fairly  good  style,  but 
he  uses  the  falsetto  to  excess.  He  sang  a  trill  on 
high  C  and  ran  up  to  G.  The  second  tenor  tried 
to  imitate  him  but  could  not  make  the  change 
from  the  natural  voice  to  the  falsetto ;  besides  he 
is  very  unmusical.  He  creates  a  new  tempo,  now 
^  then  2/4  and  cuts  his  phrases  wherever  he 
pleases.  But  the  orchestra  is  used  to  him.  The 
leader  is  Mr.  Baumgartner,  a  German,  who,  how- 
ever, has  almost  forgotten  his  mother-tongue. 
The  theatre  is  very  dark  and  dirty,  about  as  large 
as  the  Vienna  Court  Theatre.  The  common  herd 
in  the  galleries,  as  is  the  case  in  all  theatres,  is 
86 


HIS  NOTE   BOOK 

very  impertinent.  It  gives  the  pitch  in  a  boister- 
ous manner  and  the  performers  are  obliged  to 
repeat  according  to  its  noisy  wishes.  The  parterre 
and  all  the  boxes  frequently  have  to  applaud  a 
great  deal  to  secure  a  repetition,  but  they  suc- 
ceeded this  evening  with  the  duet  in  the  third  act 
which  is  very  beautiful.  The  controversy  lasted 
nearly  a  quarter  of  an  hour  before  parterre  and 
boxes  triumphed  and  the  duo  was  repeated.  The 
two  performers  stood  in  a  fright  on  the  stage,  now 
retiring  then  again  coming  to  the  front.  The 
orchestra  is  sleepy. 

Mozard  (sic)  died  the  5th  day  of  December, 
1791. 

Mozart  had  been  among  the  last  to  say 
farewell  to  Haydn  when  he  left  Vienna  in 
company  with  Salomon,  who  had  engaged 
him  for  the  London  season,  on  December  15, 
1790.  Salomon  had  planned  a  visit  also  for 
Mozart,  who  had  not  been  to  London  since 
he  had  astounded  the  English  aristocracy 
with  his  prodigious  talents  in  1764-6$.  But 
when  the  two  friends  shook  hands  at  parting 
Mozart  said  :  "  This  is  probably  our  last  fare- 
well in  this  life."  And  his  premonition  was 
fulfilled.  Haydn,  who  was  born  twenty-four 
years  earlier  than  Mozart,  died  eighteen  years 
later. 

87 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

Pleyl  came  to  London  on  the  23d  of  December. 
On  the  24th  I  dined  with  him. 

Ignaz  Pleyel,  a  pupil  of  Haydn,  had  been 
brought  to  London  by  the  managers  of  the 
so-called  Professional  Concerts,  which  were 
given  in  opposition  to  those  of  Salomon  for 
which  Haydn  had  come.  The  rivalry  between 
the  concert  organizations  was  very  bitter  and 
a  newspaper  article  which  told  that  negotia- 
tions had  been  begun  with  Pleyel,  said  that 
Haydn  was  too  old,  weak  and  exhausted  to 
produce  new  music;  wherefore  he  only  re- 
peated himself  in  his  compositions.  The 
friendship  of  master  and  pupil  was  undisturbed 
by  the  unseemly  wrangle. 

Haymarket  Theatre.  It  will  hold  4,000  per- 
sons; the  pit,  or  parterre,  alone  holds  1,200,  and 
ten  persons  can  sit  comfortably  in  each  box.  The 
"  Amphy  Theater  "  is  round,  four  stories  high  and 
to  light  it  a  beautiful  large  chandelier,  with  seventy 
lights  hangs  suspended  from  the  ceiling  in  the 
middle.  It  illuminates  the  entire  house.  But 
there  are  a  parte  small  lusters  in  the  first  and 
second  stories,  which  are  fastened  to  the  boxes. 

I   had  to  pay  one  and  a  half  guineas  for  the 
bell  peals  at  Oxforth  when  I  received  the  doctor's 
degree,  and   half  a   guinea   for   the   robe.     The 
journey  cost  six  guineas. 
88 


HIS  NOTE  BOOK 

It  was  on  July  8,  1791,  that  Haydn  re- 
ceived the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Music,  honoris 
causa,  from  Oxford  University.  His  thesis 
was  the  so-called  Oxford  symphony,  and  after 
the  ceremony  he  sent  a  canon  cancrizans  a 
tre,  set  to  the  words,  "  Thy  Voice,  O  Har-  / 
mony,  is  divine,"  to  the  University. 

The  city  of  London  has  4,000  carts  for  cleaning  ] 
the  streets,  of  which  2,000  work  every  day. 

On  the  i7th  of  March  1792,  I  was  bled  in 
London. 

In  the  month  of  August  I  journeyed  at  noon 
in  an  East  India  merchantman  with  six  cannon. 
I  was  gloriously  entertained.  In  this  month,  too, 
I  went  with  Mr.  Fraser  on  the  Thames  from 
Westminster  Bridge  to  Richmond,  where  we  had 
dinner  on  an  island.  We  were  twenty-four  per- 
sons and  a  band  of  music.  In  England  a  large 
war  vessel  is  reckoned  according  to  the  number  of 
its  cannons.  Each  cannon  is  estimated  at  1,000 
pounds. 

Mme.  Mara  was  hissed  (ausgeklatscht)  at  Oxford  \ 
because  she  did  not  rise  from  her  seat  when  the  I 
Hallelujah  chorus  was  sung. 

On  the  14th  of  December  I  dined  for  the  first 
time  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Shaw.  He  received  me 
below  stairs  at  the  door,  and  conducted  me  thence 


HAYDN  IN  LONDON 

to  his  wife,  who  was  surrounded  by  her  two 
daughters  and  other  ladies.  While  I  was  bowing 
all  around  I  suddenly  perceived  that  the  lady  of 
the  house,  besides  her  daughters  and  the  other 
ladies,  wore  on  their  headdresses  a  pearl-colored 
band,  of  three-fingers'  breadth,  embroidered  in 
gold  with  the  name  of  Haydn,  and  Mr.  Shaw  wore 
the  name  on  the  two  ends  of  his  collar  in  the 
finest  steel  beads.  The  coat  was  of  the  finest 
cloth,  smooth,  and  bore  beautiful  steel  buttons. 
The  mistress  is  the  most  beautiful  woman  I  ever 
saw.  N.  B.  —  Her  husband  wanted  me  to  give 
him  a  souvenir,  and  I  gave  him  a  tobacco-box 
which  I  had  just  bought  for  a  guinea.  He  gave 
me  his  in  exchange.  A  few  days  afterward  I 
visited  him  and  found  that  he  had  had  a  case  of 
silver  put  over  the  box  I  had  given  him,  on  the 
cover  of  which  was  engraved  Apollo's  harp,  and 
round  it  the  words  Ex  dono  celeberrimi  Josephi 
Haydn.  N.  B.  —  The  mistress  gave  me  a  stick- 
pin as  a  souvenir. 

At  the  first  concert  the  Adagio  of  the  symphony 
in  D  was  repeated. 

At  the  second  concert  the  chorus  and  the  above 
symphony  were  repeated;  also  the  first  Allegro 
and  the  Adagio. 

In  the  third  concert  the  new  symphony  in  B-flat 
was  played  and  the  first  and  last  Allegros  were 
"  encort." 

90 


HIS  NOTE  BOOK 

Haydn's  first  three  concerts  were  given  on 
March  nth,  i8th  and  25th,  1791.  The  new 
symphonies  which  Haydn  brought  forward 
in  agreement  with  his  contract  with  Salomon, 
were  Nos.  2  and  4  of  the  so-called  Salomon 
set.  Haydn  conducted  seated  at  the  harpsi- 
chord, as  was  the  custom  at  the  time.  Salo- 
mon led  the  orchestra  which  numbered  about 
forty  men,  twelve  to  sixteen  being  violinists. 

Lord  Clermont  (Claremont)  once  gave  a  large 
supper,  and  when  the  health  of  the  King  was 
drunk  he  ordered  the  brass  band  to  play  the 
familiar  song  "  God  save  the  King  "  in  the  street 
in  the  midst  of  a  terrible  snowstorm.  This  hap- 
pened on  February  19,  1792,  so  madly  do  they 
carry  on  in  England. 

The  chapel  at  Windsor  is  a  very  old  but  splendid 
building.  The  high  altar  cost  50,000  florins.  It 
is  the  ascension  of  Christ  in  stained  glass.  This 
year,  1792,  a  Christ  appearing  to  the  Shepherds 
was  made  for  the  side  altar  at  the  right,  and  this 
small  one  is  valued  higher  than  the  large  one. 
The  view  from  the  terrace  is  divine. 

Hardy,  Otto,  Guttenbrun,  Hoppner,  Dassie. 
The  first  four  gentlemen  painted  my  portrait. 
Dassie  in  wax. 

The  Theatre  of  Varieties  Amusantes  in  Saville 
Row. — On  the  13th  of  November  I  was  invited 
91 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

there.  It  is  a  marionet  play.  The  figures  were 
well  directed,  the  singers  bad,  but  the  orchestra 
pretty  good. 

Before  her  departure  for  Italy  Mara  sang  four 
times  at  the  Haymarket  Theatre  in  Dr.  Arne's 
opera  "  Artaserses."  She  won  great  applause, 
and  was  paid  100^  for  each  performance. 

The  larger  traveller's  lead  pencil 
cost  1^2  guineas. 

shilling.  penz. 

The  small                                       5  6 

The  pen                                           6  6 

shilling  penc. 

Stel  buttons              2  £                2  o 
a  steel  girdle             140 

a  steel  chain            i                    n  6 

2  secisars  (scissors) 

3  sh.  each  6 

3  at  6  sh.  each  18                     o 
i  at  76 
i  at  i                .9                     o 
i  Penn  Knifes  i                      o 

This  memorandum,  obviously  a  list  of  trin- 
kets designed  as  gifts  for  his  friends  at  home, 
is  in  English,  barring  the  first  two  items. 

On  November  9th,  1791  sent  to  Mr.  v.  Kees, 
two   symphonies   per  postum    for   which    I   paid 
92 


HIS   NOTE   BOOK 

i    guinea    n^    shillings,  and   3    shillings   for   2 
letters  and,  for  copying,  i  guinea. 

Noyan,  a  drink  composed  of  nutmeg,  rum  and 
sugar.  It  comes  from  Martinique,  West  Indies, 
which  belongs  to  France. 

Oranges  come  from  Portugal  in  the  middle  of 
November,  but  they  are  pale  and  not  so  good  as 
they  are  later. 

On  the  5th  of  December  there  was  a  fog  so 
thick  that  one  might  have  spread  it  on  bread.  In 
order  to  write  I  had  to  light  a  candle  as  early  as 
1 1  o'clock. 

English  Fanaticism.  —  Miss  Dora  Jordan,  a 
mistress  of  the  Duke  of  Clarens  (Clarence)  and 
the  best  actress  in  Drury  Lane,  one  evening  when 
she  was  expected  to  play  wrote  to  the  impresario 
an  hour  before  the  beginning  of  the  comedy  that 
she  had  suddenly  become  ill  and  therefore  could 
not  act.  When  the  curtain  was  raised  in  order  to 
inform  the  public  oLthe  fact  and  to  state  a  willing- 
ness to  give  another  spectacle  the  whole  house 
began  to  howl,  demanding  an  immediate  perform- 
ance of  the  comedy  which  had  been  announced, 
with  another  actress  to  read  the  role  of  the  Jordan. 
This  was  objected  to,  but  the  public  became 
stubborn  and  had  to  be  satisfied  in  its  way.  Miss 
Jordan  gained  the  contempt  of  the  public  because 
she  openly  drove  in  Hey  (Hyde)  Park  with  the 
93 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

Duke  but  without  shoes.  But  she  begged  for 
pardon  in  all  the  newspapers,  and  was  wholly 
forgiven. 


A  gang  of  rowdies  bawled  this  song,  yelling  so 
that  one  could  hear  them  1000  paces  away  from 
the  street  in  every  nook  and  cranny. 

Mr.  Bressy,  No.  71  Lombard  Street. 


94 


II 

HIS   ENGLISH    LOVE 

THE  existence  of  a  batch  of  love  letters  written 
to  Haydn  during  his  visits  to  London  has  been 
known  to  students  ever  since  Dies's  little  bi- 
ography of  the  composer  appeared  in  Vienna 
in  1810.  C.  F.  Pohl  devotes  several  pages  of 
his  fascinating  book,  "  Haydn  in  London  "  to 
them,  and  reprints  a  few  passages  from  them  ; 
but  the  letters  themselves  do  not  appear  to 
have  been  printed  either  in  their  original 
English  or  a  German  translation  until  I  gave 
them  to  the  world  through  the  columns  of 
"  The  New  York  Tribune."  I  was  enabled 
to  do  so  through  coming  into  possession  of 
the  note  books  described  in  the  last  chapter. 
Haydn  had  copied  them  out  in  full,  a  pro- 
ceeding which  tells  its  own  story  touching 
his  feelings  toward  the  missives  and  their  fair 
author  —  for  she  was  fair.  Fourteen  years 
after  they  had  been  received  they  were  still 
treasured  by  the  composer  among  his  souve- 
nirs of  the  English  visit.  To  Dies,  who  asked 
him  about  them,  Haydn  answered,  with  a 
95 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

twinkle  in  his  gray  eyes :  "  They  are  letters 
from  an  English  widow  in  London  who  loved 
me.  Though  sixty  years  old,  she  was  still 
lovely  and  amiable,  and  I  should  in  all  likeli- 
hood have  married  her  if  I  had  been  single." 
Alas  for  the  lovely  and  amiable  correspon- 
dent, there  was  a  Mistress  Haydn  at  home  in 
Vienna,  who  still  grappled  the  dear  old  man 
(he  was  fifty-nine)  to  her  person,  if  not  to  her 
soul,  with  hoops  of  the  law  !  Mistress  Haydn 
was  neither  lovely  nor  amiable.  Had  she 
been  either,  or  both,  it  is  not  likely  that 
Papa's  heart  would  so  easily  have  become 
errant,  though  he  was,  as  he  himself  confessed, 
fond  of  looking  at  pretty  women.  Frau  Dok- 
torin,  moreover,  was  a  Xantippe.  That  she 
proved  even  while  Mistress  Schroeter  was 
laying  siege  to  Dr.  Haydn's  heart.  Shortly 
before  Haydn  started  for  home,  in  1792,  he 
received  a  letter  from  his  wife  asking  for  two 
thousand  florins  out  of  his  earnings  to  pay 
for  a  house  which  she  wished  to  purchase  in 
the  suburb  of  Vienna  now  called  Gumpendorf. 
It  is  the  house  known  as  No.  19  Haydn- 
gasse,  to  which  a  marble  memorial  tablet  was 
affixed  in  1840.  In  the  letter  asking  for  the 
purchase  money  the  amiable  lady  described 
the  house  as  just  the  thing  for  her  to  "live  in 
as  a  widow."  Papa  Haydn  did  not  send  the 
96 


HIS  ENGLISH   LOVE 

money,  but  on  his  return  he  looked  at  the 
house,  and,  rinding  it  pleasantly  situated  and 
to  his  taste,  bought  it.  Xantippe  died  seven 
years  later,  "  and  now,"  said  Haydn,  telling 
the  story  in  1806,  "I'm  living  in  it  as  a 
widower." 

And  who  was  she  whom  Marjorie  Fleming, 
Sir  Walter's  "  wifie,"  would  have  called 
Haydn's  "loveress?"  The  note  books  yield 
up  part  of  the  secret: 

Mistress  Schroeter,  No.  6  James-st.,  Bucking- 
ham's Gate. 

Th'e  musical  encyclopaedists  have  done  the 
rest.     True,  she  shines  in  the  books  only  by 
reflected  light,  but  you  may  read  of  her  in 
Sir  George    Grove's   "  Dictionary  of  Music 
and  Musicians,"  Fetis's  "  Biographic  Univer- 
selle  des  Musiciens,"  "Rees's  Encyclopedia" 
and  in  lesser  handbooks,  so  you  look  under 
the  name  Jah^ji_JSam«elH3chiroeter7 This 
Schroeter  was    an    excellent   musician,  who 
came  to  London  in  1772  and  ten  years  later 
succeeded    "  the    English   Bach "    as   music-    / 
master  to  the  Queen.     He  was  one  of  the  first  / 
musicians  to  disclose  the  possibilities  of  the  j 
pianoforte  as  distinguished  from  the  harpsi-  ; 
chord,  and  his  talents  were  highly  appreci- 
ated in  professional  as  well  as  Court  circles. 
7  97 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

He  came  of  a  talented  family.  His  father 
was  oboist  of  the  royal  orchestra  at  Warsaw, 
his  brother  Johann  Heinrich  was  a  violinist, 
and  his  sister  Corona  Elizabeth  Wilhelmine 
was  the  singer,  actress,  composer  and  painter, 
whose  portrait  still  hangs  in  the  Grand  Ducal 
library  at  Weimar,  where  it  was  placed  by 
Goethe,  as  may  be  read  in  a  later  chapter  of 
this  volume. 

As  for  the  lady  in  the  case,  let  two  excerpts 
from  the  books  suffice.  Dr.  Burney,  writing 
of  Johann  Samuel  Schroeter  in  "Rees's  En- 
cyclopedia," said: 

He  married  a  young  lady  of  considerable  for- 
tune, who  was  his  scholar,  and  was  in  easy  circum- 
stances ;  but  there  was  a  languor  discoverable  in 
his  looks  while  disease  was  preying  upon  him 
several  years  before  his  decease. 

Fe"tis  says  in  his  "  Biographic  Universelle 
des  Musiciens  " : 

Un  manage  clandestin  avec  une  de  ses  eleves, 
(font  la  Jamille  appertenait  a  la  haute  societe,  lui 
suscita  beaucoup  de  chagrin.  La  menace  d'etre 
traduit  devant  la  cour  de  la  chancellerie  Fobliga 
de  consentir  a  Tannulation  de  son  hymen,  moyen- 
nant  une  pension  viagere  de  500  livres  sterling. 
L  eclat  yu'  avait  en  cette  affaire  lui  fit  c here her  une 
retraite  a  la  campagne. 

98 


HIS   ENGLISH   LOVE 

He  died  in  1 788  —  three  years  before  Haydn 
came  to  London.  The  widow  must  have 
made  Haydn's  acquaintance  soon  after  his 
arrival  in  town,  and  become  his  pupil,  for  on 
June  29,  1791,  she  writes  to  him  as  follows: 

Mrs.  Schroeter  presents  her  compliments  to  Mr. 
Haydn  and  informs  him  she  is  just  returned  to 
town  and  will  be  very  happy  to  see  him  whenever 
it  is  convenient  to  him  to  give  her  a  lesson. 

James-st,  Buckingham  gate,  Wednesday,  June 
the  29th,  1791. 

Unless  Haydn  was  fibbing  it  a  bit  for  the 
sake  of  appearances,  it  is  probable  that  Dies 
misunderstood  his  remark  about  the  age  of 
the  lady  when  she  wrote  the  letters.  She 
may  have  been  sixty  years  old  when  Haydn 
told  the  story  in  1806,  but  it  is  wholly  im- 
probable that  she  was  that  age  in  1792.  Dr. 
Burney,  who  knew  her  in  all  likelihood,  speaks 
of  her  as  "a  young  lady"  when  she  was  mar- 
ried to  Schroeter,  who  was  only  thirty-eight 
years  old  when  he  died.  If  she  was  sixty 
years  old  when  Haydn  met  her,  she  must 
have  been  eighteen  years  her  husband's 
senior,  and  could  not  well  be  described  as  a 
"  young  "  lady. 

In  1794,  when  Haydn  returned  to  London 
for  a  second  visit,  he  did  not  move  into  his 
99 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

old  lodgings,  but  found  others  at  No.  I  Bury- 
st,  St.  James's. 

This  much  more  pleasantly  situated  dwelling, 
says  Pohl,  he  probably  owed  to  the  considerate 
care  of  Mrs.  Schroeter,  who,  by  the  same  token, 
thus  brought  him  nearer  to  herself.  A  short  and 
pleasant  walk  of  scarcely  ten  minutes  through  St. 
James's  Palace  and  the  Mall  (a  broad  alley  along- 
side of  St.  James's  Park)  led  him  to  Buckingham 
Palace,  and  near  at  hand  was  the  house  of  Mrs. 
Schroeter.  When  he  went  away  from  London  for- 
ever he  left  behind  him  the  scores  of  his  six  last 
symphonies  "  in  the  hands  of  a  lady,"  probably 
Mrs.  Schroeter. 

Finally,  let  it  be  added  that  Haydn  honored 
the  lady  by  inscribing  three  trios  to  her,  Nos. 
i,  2  and  6  in  the  Breitkopf  and  Hartel  list. 

The  letters  were  copied  into  one  of  the 
two  note  books  by  Haydn  without  regard 
to  chronological  sequence;  the  following 
arrangement  is  my  own,  three  undated  letters 
being  put  at  the  end,  though  they  obviously 
ought  to  be  early  in  the  list.  The  abbrevia- 
tions are  easily  understood,  and,  indeed,  find 
their  explanation  sooner  or  later  in  the  letters 
themselves.  "  M.  D."  is  my  dear ;  "  M.  Dst.," 
my  dearest;  "  M.  L.,"  my  love;  "  H."  and 
"Hn.,"  Haydn. 

100 


HIS   ENGLISH   LOVE 

Wednesday,  Febr.  8th,  1792. 

M.  D.  Inclos'd  I  have  sent  you  the  words  of  the 
song  you  desire.  I  wish  much  to  know  how  you 
do  today.  I  am  very  sorry  to  lose  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  you  this  morning,  but  I  hope  you  will 
have  time  to  come  tomorrow.  I  beg  my  D  you 
will  take  great  care  of  your  health  and  do  not 
fatigue  yourself  with  too  much  application  to 
business.  My  thoughts  and  best  wishes  are  always 
with  you,  and  I  ever  am  with  the  utmost  sincerity 
M.  D.  your  &c 

March  the  7th  92. 

My  D.  I  was  extremely  sorry  to  part  with  you 
so  suddenly  last  night,  our  conversation  was  par- 
ticularly interesting  and  I  had  a  thousand  affec- 
tionate things  to  Say  to  you.  my  heart  was  and  is 
full  of  tenderness  for  you  but  no  language  can 
express  ha!f\.\\&  Love  and  Affection  I  feel  for  you. 
you  are  dearer  to  me  every  Day  of  my  life.  I  am 
very  Sorry  I  was  so  dull  and  Stupid  yesterday, 
indeed  my  Dearest  it  was  nothing  but  my  being 
indisposed  with  a  cold  occasion'd  my  Stupidity. 
I  thank  you  a  thousand  times  for  your  Concern  for 
me.  I  am  truly  Sensible  of  your  goodness  and  I 
assure  you  my  D.  if  anything  had  happened  to 
trouble  me,  I  wou'd  have  open'd  my  heart  and 
told  you  with  the  greatest  confidence,  oh,  how 
earnestly  I  wish  to  See  you.  I  hope  you  will 
101 


HAYDN  IN   LONDON 

come  to  me  tomorrow.  I  shall  be  happy  to  See 
you  both  in  the  Morning  and  the  Evening.  God 
Bless  you  my  love,  my  thoughts  and  best  wishes 
ever  accompany  you  and  I  always  am  with  the 
most  Sincere  and  invariable  Regard  my  D 

Your  truly  affectionate 

my  Dearest  I  cannot  be 
happy  till  I  see  you  if 
you  Know  do  tell  me 
when  you  will  come. 

My  D.  I  am  extremely  sorry  I  can  not  have 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  to  morrow  as  I  am  go- 
ing to  Blackheath.  if  you  are  not  engaged  this 
Evening  I  should  be  very  happy  if  you  will  do  me 
the  favor  to  come  to  me  —  and  I  hope  to  have  the 
happiness  to  See  you  on  Saturday  to  dinner,  my 
thoughts  and  tenderest  affections  are  always  with 
you  and  I  ever  am  most  truly  my  D  your  Faith- 
ful &c. 

April  4th  92. 

My  D :  With  this  you  will  receive  the  Soap. 
I  beg  you  a  thousand  Pardons  for  not  sending  it 
sooner.  I  know  you  will  have  the  goodness  to 
excuse  me.  I  hope  to  hear  you  are  quite  well  and 
have  Slept  well  —  I  shall  be  happy  to  See  you  my 
D  :  as  soon  as  possible.  I  shall  be  much  obliged 
to  you  if  you  will  do  me  the  favor  to  send  me 
Twelve  Tikets  for  your  Concert,  may  all  success 
1 02 


HIS  ENGLISH  LOVE 

attend  you  my  ever  D  H  that  Night  and  always  is 
the  sincere  and  hearty  wish  of  your 

Invariable  and  Truly  affectionate 
James  St.  April  8th  1792 

James  St.  Thursday,  April  12th 
M.  D. 

I  am  so  truly  anxious  about  you.  I  must  write 
to  beg  to  know  how  you  do  ?  I  was  very  sorry  I 
had  not  the  pleasure  of  Seeing  you  this  Evening, 
my  thoughts  have  been  constantly  with  you  and 
indeed  my  D.  L.  no  words  can  express  half  the 
tenderness  and  affection  I  feel  for  you.  I  thought 
you  seemed  out  of  Spirits  this  morning.  I  wish  I 
could  always  remove  every  trouble  from  your 
mind,  be  assured  my  D :  I  partake  with  the 
most  perfect  sympathy  in  all  your  sensations  and 
my  regard  for  you  is  Stronger  every  day.  my  best 
wishes  always  attend  you  and  I  am  ever  my  D.  H. 
most  sincerely  your  Faithful  etc. 

M.  D.  I  was  extremely  Sorry  to  hear  this 
morning  that  you  were  indisposed.  I  am  told  you 
were  five  hours  at  your  Studys  yesterday,  indeed 
my  D.  L.  I  am  afraid  it  will  hurt  you.  why  shou'd 
you  who  have  already  produced  So  many  wonder- 
ful and  Charming  compositions  Still  fatigue  your- 
self with  Such  close  application.  I  almost  tremble 
for  your  health  let  me  prevail  on  you  my  much- 
loved  H.  not  to  keep  to  your  Studys  so  long  at 
103 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

one  time,  my  D  love  if  you  cou'd  know  how  very 
precious  your  welfare  is  to  me  I  flatter  myself  you 
wou'd  endeaver  to  preserve  it  for  my  sake  as  well 
QS, your  own.  pray  inform  me  how  you  do  and  how 
you  have  Slept.  I  hope  to  see  you  to  Morrow  at 
the  concert  and  on  Saturday  I  shall  be  happy  to 
See  you  here  to  dinner,  in  the  mean  time  my  D  : 
my  Sincerest  good  wishes  constantly  attend  you  and 
I  ever  am  with  the  tenderest  regard  your  most  &c 

J.  S.  April  the  i9th  92 

April  24th  1792. 

My  D.  I  cannot  leave  London  without  Send- 
ing you  a  line  to  assure  you  my  thoughts,  my  best 
wishes  and  tenderest  affections  will  inseparably 
attend  you  till  we  meet  again,  the  Bearer  will 
also  deliver  you  the  March.  I  am  very  Sorry  I 
could  not  write  it  Sooner,  nor  better,  but  I  hope 
my  D.  you  will  excuse  it,  and  if  it  is  not  passable  I 
will  send  you  the  Dear  original  directly.  If  my 
H.  would  employ  me  oftener  to  write  Music  I  hope 
I  should  improve  and  I  Know  I  should  delight  in 
the  occupation,  now  my  D.  L.  let  me  intreat 
you  to  take  the  greatest  care  of  your  health.  I 
hope  to  see  you  Friday  at  the  concert  and  on 
Saturday  to  dinner,  till  when  and  ever  I  most  sin- 
cerely am  and  Shall  be  yours  etc. 

M.  D.     I  am  very  anxious  to  Know  how  you 
do,  and  hope  to  hear  you  have  been  in  good  health 
ever  Since  I  Saw  you.     as  the  time  for  your  charm- 
ing Concert  advances  I  feel   my  Self  more  and 
104 


HIS   ENGLISH   LOVE 

more  interested  for  your  Success,  and  heartily 
wish  everything  may  turn  out  to  your  Satisfaction, 
do  me  the  favor  to  send  me  six  Tickets  more,  on 
Saturday  my  D.  L.  I  hope  to  see  you  to  dinner, 
in  the  mean  time  my  thoughts  my  best  wishes  and 
tenderest  affections  constantly  attend  you  and  I 
ever  am  my  D.  H.  most  sincerely  and  aff. 
J.  S.  May  ye  2d  1792 

James  St.  Tuesday  May  the  8th 
My  Dst  I  am  extremely  Sorry  I  have  not  the 
pleasure  Seeing  you  to  Day,  but  hope  to  see  you 
to  Morrow  at  one  o'Clock  and  if  you  can  take 
your  Dinner  with  me  to  Morrow  I  shall  be  very 
glad.  I  hope  to  See  you  also  on  thursday  to 
dinner,  but  I  Suppose  you  will  be  obliged  to  go  to 
the  concert  that  Evening  and  you  Know  the  other 
concert  is  on  Friday  and  you  go  to  the  country 
on  Saturday,  this  my  Dst  Love  makes  me  more 
Solicitous  for  you  to  Stay  with  me  to  Morrow,  if 
you  are  not  engaged,  as  I  wish  to  have  as  much  of 
your  company  as  possible.  God  Bless  you  my  D. 
H.  I  always  am  with  the  tenderest  Regard  your 

sincere  and  affectionate 

May  17*. 

M.  D.  Permit  me  to  return  you  a  thousand 
thanks  for  this  Evening's  entertainment.  Where 
your  sweet  compositions  and  your  excellent  per- 
formance combine,  it  cannot  fail  of  being  the  most 
charming  concert  but  independent  of  that  the 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

pleasure  of  Seeing  you  must  ever  give  me  infinite 
Satisfaction.  Pray  inform  me  how  you  do  ?  and  if 
you  have  Slept  well?  I  hope  to  See  you  to  mor- 
row my  D.  and  on  Saturday  to  dinner,  till  when 
and  always  I  remain  most  sincerely  my  D.  L.  most 
Faithfully  etc. 

M.  D.  If  you  will  do  me  the  favor  to  take  your 
dinner  with  me  tomorrow  I  shall  be  very  happy  to 
see  you  and  I  particularly  wish  for  the  pleasure  of 
your  company  my  Dst  Love  before  our  other 
friends  come.  I  hope  to  hear  you  are  in  good 
Health.  My  best  wishes  and  tenderest  Regards 
are  your  constant  attendants  and  I  ever  am  with 
the  firmest  Attachment  my  Dst  H  most  sincerely 
and  Affectionately  yours  R.  S. 

James  S.  Tuesday  Ev.  May  22d. 

My  Dst.  I  beg  to  know  how  you  do?  I  hope 
to  hear  your  head-ach  is  entirely  gone  and  that 
you  have  Slept  well.  I  shall  be  very  very  happy 
to  See  you  on  Sunday  any  time  convenient  to  you 
after  one  o'Clock.  I  hope  to  see  you  my  D.  Le  on 
tuesday  as  usual  to  Dinner,  and  I  Shall  be  much 
obliged  to  you  if  you  will  inform  me  what  Day  will 
be  agreeable  to  you  to  meet  Mr.  Mtris.  and  Miss 
Stone  at  my  house  to  Dinner.  I  should  be  glad  if 
it  was  either  Thursday  or  Friday,  whichever  Day 
you  please  to  fix.  I  will  send  to  Mr.  Stone  to  let 
them  know.  I  long  to  see  you  my  Dst  H.  let  me 
have  that  pleasure  as  soon  as  you  can  till  when 
106 


HIS   ENGLISH   LOVE 

and   Ever  I   remain  with  the  firmest  attachment 
My  Dst  L. 

Most  faithfully  and  affectionately  yours 

Friday  June  ye  ist  1792 

M.  D.  I  can  not  close  my  eyes  to  sleep  till  I 
have  return'd  you  ten  thousand  thanks  for  the 
inexpressible  delight  I  have  received  from  your 
ever  Enchanting  compositions  and  your  incompar- 
ably Charming  performance  of  them,  be  assured 
my  D.  H.  that  among  all  your  numerous  admirers 
no  one  has  listened  with  more  profound  attention 
and  no  one  can  have  Such  high  veneration  for 
your  most  brilliant  Talents  as  I  have,  indeed  my 
D.  L.  no  tongue  can  express  the  gratitude  I  feel 
for  the  infinite  pleasure  your  Musick  has  given  me. 
accept  then  my  repeeted  thanks  for  it  and  let  me 
also  assure  you  with  heart  felt  affection  that  I  Shall 
ever  consider  the  happiness  of  your  acquaintance 
as  one  of  the  Chief  Blessings  of  my  life,  and  it  is 
the  Sincer  wish  of  my  heart  to  preserve  to  cultivate 
and  to  merit  it  more  and  more.  I  hope  to  hear 
you  are  quite  well.  Shall  be  happy  to  see  you  to 
dinner  and  if  you  can  come  at  three  o'Clock  it 
would  give  me  a  great  pleasure  as  I  shou'd  be 
particularly  glad  to  see  you  my  D.  befor  the  rest 
of  our  friends  come.  God  Bless  you  my  h :  I 
ever  am  with  the  firmest  and  most  perfect  attach- 
ment your  &c. 

Wednesday  night,  June  the  6th  1792. 
107 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

My  Dst  Inclosed  I  send  you  the  verses  you  was 
so  Kind  as  to  lend  me  and  am  very  much  obliged 
to  you  for  permitting  me  to  take  a  copy  of  them, 
pray  inform  me  how  you  do,  and  let  me  know  my 
Dst  L  when  you  will  dine  with  me;  I  shall  be 
happy  to  See  you  to  dinner  either  tomorrow  or 
tuesday  whichever  is  most  Convenient  to  you.  I 
am  truly  anxious  and  impatient  to  See  you  and  I 
wish  to  have  as  much  of  your  company  as  possible  ; 
indeed  my  Dst  H.  I  feel  for  you  the  fondest  and 
tenderest  affection  the  human  Heart  is  capable  of 
and  I  ever  am  with  \hzfirmest  attachment  my  Dst 
Love 

most  Sincerely,  Faithfully 
and  most  affectionately  yours 

Sunday  Evening,  June  10,  1792 

My  Dearest. 

I  hope  to  hear  you  are  in  good  Health  and 
have  had  an  agreeable  Journey,  that  you  have  been 
much  amused  with  the  Race  and  that  everything 
has  turned  out  to  your  satisfaction.  Pray  my  Dst 
love  inform  me  how  you  do?  Every  circumstance 
concerning  you  my  beloved  Hd  is  interesting  to 
me.  I  shall  be  very  happy  to  see  you  to  dinner 
tomorrow  and  I  ever  am  with  the  sincerest  and 
tenderest  Regard  my  Dst  Hn  most  Faithfully  and 
affectionately  yours 

R.  S. 

James  S.  Thursday  Even.  June  ye  14th  1792 
1 08 


HIS   ENGLISH   LOVE 

My  D.  I  hope  to  hear  you  are  in  good  health 
and  that  you  Slept  well  last  night.  I  shall  be  very 
happy  to  see  you  on  Monday  morning  —  permit 
me  to  remind  you  about  Mr.  Erasers  and  you  will 
be  so  good  as  to  let  me  know  on  Monday  how  it 
is  Settled.  God  Bless  you  my  D  Love,  my 
thoughts  and  best  wishes  are  your  constant  atten- 
dants, and  I  ever  am  with  the  tenderest  Regard 
my  D.  H.  most  etc. 

June  ye  26*  92 

M.  D. 

I  was  extremely  sorry  I  had  not  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  you  to-day,  indeed  my  Dst  Love  it  was  a 
very  great  disappointment  to  me  as  every  moment 
of  your  company  is  more  and  more  precious  to  me 
now  your  departure  is  so  near.  I  hope  to  hear 
you  are  quite  well  and  I  shall  be  very  happy  to  see 
you  my  Dst  Hn.  any  time  to-morrow  after  one 
o'clock,  if  you  can  come ;  but  if  not  I  shall  hope 
for  the  pleasure  of  Seeing  you  on  Monday.  You 
will  receive  this  letter  to-morrow  morning.  I 
would  not  send  it  to-day  for  fear  you  should  not 
be  at  home  and  I  wish  to  have  your  answer.  God 
Bless  you  my  Dst  Love,  once  more  I  repeat  let 
me  See  you  as  Soon  as  possible.  I  ever  am  with 
the  most  inviolable  attachment  my  Dst  and  most 

beloved  H. 

most  faithfully  and  most 
affectionately  yours 

R.  S. 
109 


HAYDN   IN   LONDON 

June  the  26th,  1792. 

My  Dearest. 

I  am  quite  impatient  to  know  how  you  do  this 
Morning  and  if  you  Slept  well  last  Night.  I  am 
much  obliged  to  you  for  all  your  Kindness  yester- 
day, and  heartily  thank  you  for  it.  I  earnestly 
long  to  see  you  my  Dst  L :  and  I  hope  to  have 
that  pleasure  this  morning.  My  Thoughts  and 
best  Regards  are  incessantly  with  you,  and  I  ever 

am  my  D.  H. 

most  faithfully  and  most  af- 
fectionately your 

M.  D. 

I  was  extremely  sorry  I  had  not  the  pleasure  of 
your  company  this  morning  as  I  most  anxiously 
wish'd  to  See  you  —  my  thoughts  are  continually 
with  you  my  beloved  H  :  and  my  affection  for  you 
increases  daily,  no  words  can  express  half  the 
tender  Regard  I  feel  for  you.  I  hope  my  Dst  L : 
I  shall  have  the  happiness  of  Seeing  you  to-mor- 
row to  dinner  in  the  meantime  my  best  wishes 
always  attend  you,  and  I  ever  am  with  the  firmest 
attachment  my  D.  H.  most  etc. 

M.  D. 

I  am  heartily  sorry  I  was  so  unfortunate  not  to 
See  you  when  you  call'd  on  me  this  morning. 
Can  you  my  D.  be  so  good  as  to  dine  with  me 
to-day?  I  beg  you  will  if  it  is  possible.  You 
cannot  imagine  how  miserable  I  am  that  I  did  not 
no 


HIS   ENGLISH   LOVE 

See  you.    do  come  to- Day  I  intreat  you.    I  always 
am  M.  D.  with  the  tenderest  Regard  etc. 
Monday,  2  o'clock. 

I  am  just  returned  from  the  concert  where  I 
was  very  much  Charmed  with  your  delightful  and 
enchanting  Compositions  and  your  Spirited  and 
interesting  performance  of  them,  accept  ten  thou- 
sand thanks  for  the  great  pleasure  I  always  receive 
from  your  incomparable  Music.  My  D  :  I  intreat 
you  to  inform  me  how  you  do  and  if  you  get  any 
Sleep  to  Night.  I  am  extremely  anxious  about 
your  health.  I  hope  to  hear  a  good  account  of  it. 
god  Bless  you  my  H  :  come  to  me  to-morrow.  I 
shall  be  happy  to  See  you  both  morning  and 
Evening.  I  always  am  with  the  tenderest  Regard 
my  D  :  your  Faithful  and  Affectionate 

Friday  Night,  12  o'clock. 


in 


A    MOZART   CENTENARY 


I 


SOCIAL   AND   ARTISTIC 
SALZBURG 

To  the  ordinary  summer  tourist  Salzburg  is 
the  gateway  to  the  Salzkammergut.  "To  the 
music  lover  it  is  the  birthplace  of  Mozart. 
From  the  fifteenth  to  the  eighteenth  of  July, 
1891,  inclusive,  it  was  lifted  into  extraordi- 
nary prominence  by  the  latter  circumstance. 
Save  those  lent  her  by  her  greatest  son  the 
city  has  few  opportunities  to  cull  out  a 
holiday,  so  it  was  but  natural  that  the  cen- 
tenary of  his  death  should  be  remembered 
as  the  centenary  of  his  birth  had  been.  But 
Mozart  died  in  December,  a  most  inhospi- 
table season  in  the  latitude  of  Salzburg,  and 
one  when  the  strangers  within  the  city's 
gates  might  easily  be  counted  on  the  fingers 
of  a  single  landlord.  I  fancy  that  when  the 
project  of  celebrating  the  hundredth  anni- 
versary of  the  great  composer's  death  was 
first  mooted  in  1891,  there  was  scarcely  a 
citizen  in  the  town  outside  of  the  teachers 
and  pupils  of  the  Mozarteum,  who  would 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

not  have  gladly  sacrificed  "  Requiem  "  and 
"  Zauberflote "  to  have  had  Mozart  die  in 
July  or  August  instead  of  December;  but 
since  that  was  something  beyond  their  con- 
trol, and  no  one  was  willing  to  lose  the 
advantages  of  a  midsummer  celebration,  re- 
sort was  had  to  a  sentimental  fiction  and  the 
festival  was  moved  forward  six  months. 

The  fact  that  the  week  chosen  was  that 
immediately  preceding  the  opening  of  the 
Wagner  festival  at  Bayreuth  was  calculated 
to  give  an  artistic  significance  to  the  cele- 
bration which  I  wish  I  could  persuade  myself 
had  entered  the  thoughts  of  the  Committee 
of  Arrangements.  It  disposed  the  thought- 
ful to  reflect  on  the  changes  which  have 
come  over  dramatic  music  within  the  time 
bounded  by  the  archonships  of  Mozart  and 
Wagner.  Progress  or  retrogression  —  which 
is  it  ?  He  would  be  a  brave  man,  or  a  care- 
less one,  who  would  dare  to  assert  the  latter, 
yet  I  am  bound  to  say  that  even  the  most 
ardent  admirers  of  Wagner  who  came  to 
Salzburg  on  their  way  to  Bayreuth  must 
have  felt  a  strange  swelling  of  the  heart  dur- 
ing the  Mozart  festival  which  may  have  been 
matched  in  degree  but  scarcely  in  kind  when 
a  week  later  the  harmonies  began  to  ascend 
like  clouds  of  incense  from  the  mystical 
116 


SOCIAL  AND  ARTISTIC  SALZBURG 

abyss  in  the  temple  of  the  oracle  of  Bay- 
reuth.      Unhappily,    however,   for   the  good 
opinion  which  we  all  like  to  hold  with  refer- 
ence to  those  who  contribute  to  the  happi- 
ness of  mankind  by  arranging  great  festivals, 
I  fear  that  the  Committee  of  the  Mozart  cen- 
tenary if  they  thought  of  the  Bayreuth  festi- 
val at  all,   thought   of  it  only  as  an  affair 
which  might  help  them  in  the  financial  part 
of  their  enterprise ;   visitors  to  Bayreuth  — 
a   term   that    now    includes   practically  the 
whole    peripatetic    company    in    Europe  — 
might  easily  be  persuaded  to  make  Salzburg 
a  temporary  way-station.     Thus  the  master 
of  the  present  would  seem  to  pay  tribute  to 
the  master  of  the  past,  and  the  mingling  of 
the  disciples  of   both  would   encourage  the 
inn-keepers  of  Salzburg  in  the  good  opinion 
of  Mozart  which  it  is  their  duty  to  maintain. 
In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
Salzburg   was    the    seat    of    a    principality 
whose    sovereign    wielded    a    two-fold    and 
doubly  despotic  power  by  reason  of  his  head- 
ship in  both    church   and   state.      I  needed 
only  to  glance  out  of  my  hotel  window  across 
the   rushing    Salzach   to  see  monuments  of 
that  power.     The  old  fortress  Hohensalzburg 
frowns  down  on  the  town  from  its  dominat- 
ing  height;  the  cathedral    lifts   its   towers 
117 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

with  Roman  haughtiness  amidst  the  houses 
huddled  together  below.  All  week  long  the 
walls  of  the  houses  showed  a  festive  counte- 
nance and  glowed  with  a  gay  irruption  of 
patriotic  bunting,  while  castle  and  church 
preserved  an  aspect  of  stern  severity.  It  was 
as  though  the  spirit  of  that  brutal  Prince- 
Archbishop,  who  a  little  more  than  a  hun- 
dred years  before  had  thrown  away  the  most 
priceless  jewel  in  his  diadem,  was  still 
abroad.  There  seemed  to  be  a  peculiar  pro- 
priety in  the  grim  indifference  of  the  for- 
tress to  the  festival  and  the  perfunctory  part 
played  by  the  cathedral.  The  hand  which 
wielded  temporal  power  in  Salzburg  a  cen- 
tury before  was  never  extended  in  helpful 
kindness  to  her  child  of  genius,  and  when  it 
was  extended  in  episcopal  benediction  in  the 
cathedral  none  knew  better  than  Mozart  that 
it  symbolized  a  mockery  and  a  lie.  The 
archbishop  who  on  the  first  day  of  the  festi- 
val performed  just  enough  of  a  liturgical 
function  to  permit  it  to  be  opened  with  a 
performance  of  Mozart's  "Requiem  "was  a 
prelate  merely  —  long  ago  the  last  shred  of 
temporal  power  was  stripped  from  one  of  his 
predecessors  —  but  he  was  yet  Archbishop 
of  Salzburg,  and  to  a  devotee  of  Mozart  that 
title  has  a  sound  of  evil  omen.  So,  at  the 
118 


SOCIAL  AND  ARTISTIC  SALZBURG 

outset,  it  was  gratifying  to  note  that  the  fes- 
tive spirit  of  the  great  assemblage  changed 
the  religious  function  into  a  secular  cele- 
bration, and  the  soul  of  Mozart  was  not 
vexed  but  left  in  the  care  of  its  lovers.  To 
them  a  truer  sanctuary  than  the  cathedral 
was  the  humble  house  in  the  Getreide  Gasse 
where  Mozart  was  born. 

The  celebration  was  not  only  secular — it 
was  democratic  as  well.  A  Grand  Duke  of 
Austria,  the  youngest  brother  of  the  Emperor, 
was  in  attendance  in  an  official  capacity,  but 
there  was  not  one  of  the  artists  who  took  part 
in  the  musical  features  of  the  commemora- 
tion who  was  not  a  greater  object  of  in- 
terest to  the  people  than  he.  In  simple 
truth  I  fear  that  he  was  sadly  bored  by  the 
exercises,  but  it  must  be  said  to  his  credit 
that  he  performed  his  function  (which  was 
to  lend  his  presence  to  the  occasion  and  be 
seen  by  those  who  wished  to  see  him)  with 
entire  gravity.  His  sharp  features  (an  Aus- 
trian Grand  Duke  is  so  thin  that  he  rarely 
feels  the  wind)  never  reflected  the  slightest 
interest  in  the  proceedings,  but  neither  did 
they  betray  the  fact  that  he  was  offering 
himself  as  a  living  sacrifice  to  duty.  A 
pretty  American  girl  filled  his  lorgnette  for 
full  five  minutes  at  the  theatre  when,  on  the 
119 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

last  night  of  the  festival,  "The  Marriage  of 
Figaro "  was  played,  and  he  exhibited  a 
comical  desire  to  use  his  opera-glasses  at 
extremely  short  range  on  a  few  other  per- 
sons, but  beyond  this  he  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  celebration  nor  it  with  him.  It 
was  a  people's  tribute  to  the  memory  of  one 
who  came  from  the  people. 

I  am  still  lost  in  amazement  at  the  fact 
that  the  festival  was  actually  carried  out  on 
the  lines  laid  down  by  the  Committee  of 
Arrangements,  and  came  to  a  satisfactory 
conclusion  instead  of  falling  hopelessly  to 
pieces.  Only  the  easy-going  disposition  of 
the  Austrian  people  and  the  lack  of  interest 
on  the  part  of  foreigners  made  this  possible. 
The  festival,  fortunately,  had  not  been  widely 
announced.  Had  even  a  small  fraction  of 
the  tourists  who  a  week  later  flocked  to  Bay- 
reuth,  come  it  would  have  been  impossible 
to  accommodate  them  at  the  musical  features 
of  the  celebration.  A  splendid  programme 
of  these  features  had  been  arranged :  A  per- 
formance of  the  "  Requiem ;  "  two  concerts 
by  the  Philharmonic  Society  of  Vienna  un- 
der Wilhelm  Jahn,  at  the  time  Director  of 
the  Imperial  Court  Opera;  finally  a  repre- 
sentation of  "The  Marriage  of  Figaro."  At 
all  of  these  entertainments  the  purchaser  of 
120 


SOCIAL  AND  ARTISTIC  SALZBURG 

a  general  ticket  costing  fourteen  Gulden 
(less  than  six  dollars)  was  entitled  to  a  re- 
served seat.  The  cathedral  in  which  the 
"  Requiem  "  was  sung  is  said  to  have  seat- 
ing and  standing  room  for  ten  thousand  per- 
sons; the  theatre,  in  which  the  opera  was 
given,  seats  three  hundred  and  fifty,  and 
under  such  pressure  as  it  was  subjected 
to  afforded  standing-room  for  one  hundred 
more.  Any  committee,  except  one  composed 
of  citizens  of  Salzburg,  might  easily  have 
quailed  before  the  problem  raised  by  such  a 
discrepancy.  The  world  had  been  invited 
(not  very  loudly  or  urgently,  but  still  in- 
vited) to  participate  in  the  celebration.  No 
trouble  about  the  "  Requiem,"  but  how  about 
the  opera  and  the  concerts  which  took  place 
in  the  Aula  Academica,  a  hall  with  a  seat- 
ing capacity  of  twelve  hundred  or  so  ?  Evi- 
dently the  committee  knew  the  character  of 
their  townspeople  and  the  majority  of  the 
visitors  who  were  likely  to  come.  The  mass 
would  be  satisfied  with  the  popular  and  spec- 
tacular elements  in  the  celebration.  When 
it  was  possible  to  hear  the  "  Requiem  "  and 
see  a  torchlight  procession  for  nothing  and 
enjoy  a  fete  in  the  garden  of  the  Mirabell- 
schloss,  where  beer  would  be  plentiful  at 
regular  rates  and  the  music  and  illumina- 

121 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

tions  free,  the  committee  knew  that  they 
would  not  be  greatly  distressed  by  demands 
for  tickets  for  the  other  features  of-  the  festi- 
val. Of  course  many  came  who  could  not 
be  accommodated  at  the  concerts,  and  there 
were  many,  many  more  who  could  not  hope 
to  get  inside  the  tiny  box  of  a  theatre;  but 
these  were  simply  told  that  the  seats  were 
pre-empted.  "  Sorry ;  but  we  have  only 
three  hundred  and  fifty  seats  in  the  theatre. 
Should  a  ticket  be  returned  it  will  be  at 
your  disposal,  otherwise  —  ich  habe  die  Ehre  " 
—  and  the  applicant  was  disposed  of.  Yet 
no  one  complained.  It  was  the  most  aston- 
ishing exhibition  of  good  nature  that  ever 
fell  under  my  notice. 

"You  will  be  astonished  at  other  phases 
of  that  good  nature  before  you  get  out  of 
Austria,"  said  a  Scotch  friend  at  the  hotel. 
"  You  ask  how  this  people  can  endure  to 
reflect  upon  the  fact  that  they  appear  to 
every  foreign  visitor  in  the  attitude  of  a 
beggar  asking  alms.  Why,  bless  your  inno- 
cent soul,  they  don't  reflect  upon  it!  It 
wouldn't  do.  They  must  perforce  be gleich- 
giltig  to  keep  up  with  the  procession.  They 
are  thoughtless  and  merry  of  terrible  neces- 
sity. If  an  Austrian  officer  of  sensibilities 
were  to  stop  to  reflect  upon  the  condition  of 

122 


SOCIAL  AND  ARTISTIC  SALZBURG 

his  country  he  would  have  to  blow  out  his 
brains.  So  we  all,  who  live  in  Vienna,  grow 
frivolous  and  careless,  and  when  we  order  a 
bite  to  eat  we  tip  the  head-waiter  who  collects 
the  bill,  tip  the  waiter  who  serves  the  viands, 
tip  the  waiter  who  brings  the  beer  and  tip 
the  waiter  who  sells  the  cigars ;  and  after  we 
have  been  here  long  enough  to  have  become 
sufficiently  imbued  with  the  national  feeling 
we  tip  the  street-car  conductor  for  allowing 
us  the  privilege  of  paying  him  the  legal  fare 
—  we  give  him  two  Kreutzer  for  collecting 
eight." 

It  was  nip  and  tuck  for  some  hours, 
whether  or  not,  I  who  had  come  all  the  way 
from  New  York  to  attend  the  festival  should 
hear  the  concerts  and  opera  at  all.  If  a 
thrifty  soul  had  not  changed  his  mind  and 
returned  his  ticket  to  be  resold  I  should  have 
been  turned  away  by  the  committee  with : 
"I  am  sorry,  but  —  ich  habe  die  Ehre"  and 
then  have  been  expected  to  be  merry  over  it, 
or  been  invited  to  hear  the  "  Requiem " 
standing  up  for  nothing  and  mingle  with 
the  crowd  at  the  garden  fete  at  an  expense 
of  twenty  cents,  see  lights  and  drink  beer 
for  the  greater  glory  of  Mozart.  Even  after 
I  had  secured  my  tickets  and  certificates  I 
was  denied  the  pleasure  of  exhibiting  them 
123 


A  MOZART   CENTENARY 

to  the  door-keepers.  A  badge  which  I  wore 
on  the  lapel  of  my  coat  was  as  potent  as  the 
storied  "  open,  sesame  "  in  the  robbers'  cave. 
I  had  bought  it  for  eighty  Kreutzer  at  a 
book-shop ;  afterwards  I  was  told  that  it  was 
one  of  a  kind  only  sold  to  festival  subscribers. 
Every  feature  of  the  business  management 
of  the  affair  was  incomprehensible.  Except 
with  the  hotel  people  I  never  saw  money 
play  so  insignificant  a  role.  The  artists  all 
gave  their  services  gratuitously.  Ninety- 
two  members  of  the  Vienna  Philharmonic 
Society  endured  a  railway  trip  of  fourteen 
hours,  played  at  two  public  rehearsals  and 
two  concerts,  and  asked  nothing,  not  even 
seats  at  the  theatre,  for  their  labor.  Then, 
as  if  that  were  not  enough,  a  score  of  them 
walked  through  a  drenching  rain  in  the 
torchlight  procession.  Madame  Essipoff  and 
the  singers  at  the  concerts  and  opera  were 
equally  generous.  Frau  Wilt  broke  a  three 
years'  silence  to  accept  the  invitation  of  the 
committee  and  sing  an  air  in  which  she 
once  was  famous.  For  the  sake  of  my  ears 
I  wish  that  she  had  been  stouter  in  her 
determination  to  remain  in  retirement,  but  I 
feel  bound  to  record  so  striking  an  instance 
of  the  ideality  which  marked  the  artistic  side 
of  the  festival.  It  was  all  lovely,  and  from 
124 


SOCIAL  AND  ARTISTIC  SALZBURG 

a  social  and  artistic  point  of  view  the  affair 
seemed  to  be  pervaded  by  that  spirit  of  amia- 
bility which  was  the  ingredient  most  gener- 
ously present  in  Mozart's  character. 

It  was  a  commemorative  celebration  of\ 
Mozart's  death,  but  only  a  few  could  have  ) 
suspected  it.  Only  the  "  Requiem,"  a  beau- 
tiful musical  reminiscence  with  which  Direc- 
tor Hummel  introduced  the  Viennese  actor 
who  read  the  epilogue  of  the  festival  (which 
was  at  the  same  time  a  prologue  to  "The 
Marriage  of  Figaro")  and  some  words  in 
the  official  addresses  drew  attention  to  that 
fact.  I  have  said  that  the  festive  spirit  of 
the  populace  prevented  the  "  Requiem  "  from 
appearing  as  a  solemn  religious  function  as 
had  been  designed.  I  fear  that  Director 
Hummel's  device  also  missed  its  aim  with 
the  audience  in  the  theatre,  because  of  its 
subtlety.  Yet  it  was  a  most  gracious  device. 
Just  before  the  curtain  rose  to  enable  the 
actor  to  speak  the  lines  written  by  Freiherr 
von  Berger,  of  Vienna,  the  orchestra,  at  a 
sign  from  Director  Hummel,  played  a  few 
measures  of  \hQ_Lacrymosa  from  the  master's 
mass  for  the  dead.  They  were  the  last 
strains  which  Mozart's  mortal  ears  had 
caught  up.  The  story  of  his  death  is  a 
familiar  one.  He  died  while  those  about 
125 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

his  bed  were  singing  parts  of  his  uncom- 
pleted "  Requiem. "  He  had  sung  along  but 
his  voice  failed  him  in  the  Lacrymosa,  and 
his  last  gesture  was  a  hint  to  his  pupil  Siiss- 
mayr,  touching  an  effect  which  he  wished  to 
have  introduced  in  the  instrumental  part  of 
his  swan-song.  It  was  necessary  to  know 
this  incident  to  appreciate  the  pathetic 
beauty  of  the  few  measures  abruptly  broken 
off  on  the  entrance  of  the  speaker  with 
which  the  solemn  features  of  the  commemo- 
ration came  to  an  end.  /They  borrowed  a 
significance  from  the  concluding  lines  of  the 
epilogue,  but  also  lent  a  meaning  and  ten- 
derness to  them  which  I  shall  not  undertake 
to  describe.  Translated  with  regard  to  the 
sentiment  rather  than  the  music  of  the  poet's 
verses  those  lines  read  as  follows: 

But  what  a  death  !     The  singer  of  life's  fulness, 
Rapt  in  an  ecstasy,  list'ning  in  awe  to  tones 
Which,  messengers  from  another  world,  proclaim'd 
The  silent  mystery  of  death, 
Invoked  Apollo,  bearer  of  the  lyre  and  bow, 
To  send  him  tones  for  his  last  masterpiece 
Such  as  no  mortal  ears  had  ever  heard. 
Lost  in  deep  listening,  the  god  reached  out 
An  errant  hand  ;  took  up  the  bow 
Where  he  had  meant  the  tuneful  lyre, 
And  sent  an  arrow  to  the  heart, 
The  swelling,  list'ning  heart,  of  the  rapt  singer. 
126 


SOCIAL  AND  ARTISTIC  SALZBURG 

Not  infinite  melody,  but  infinite  stillness  then 
Fell  tenderly  upon  th'  expectant  brow. 
And  when  they  pressed  his  eyelids  down, 
There  hung  upon  his  lashes  still  a  tear, 
The  last,  the  hottest  he  had  ever  wept, 
In  contemplation  of  his  work, 
The  sweetest,  strangest  miracle 
That  he  himself  had  wrought. 
Is  such  a  dying  death  ?     Shall  he  be  hid 
Within  a  darksome  grave,  who  thus  ascends, 
A  god,  to  enter  heaven's  open  gates  ? 

No.     Mozart  lives  !     Soon  will  he  come  before  you ! 
Then  cleanse  your  hearts  ;  shut  every  sense 
Close  'gainst  the  din  of  commonplace  pursuits, 
And  fit  yourselves  to  hear  the  Master's  tones, 
Which,  like  a  benediction,  soon  shall  fall 
Upon  all  here  !     And  when  your  hearts  are  full, 
Then  spread  abroad  'mongst  all  of  German  birth, 
The  master's  fame  !     He  who  could  thus  create  ! 
The  people's  fame  from  whose  strong  loins  he  sprung, 
The  city's  fame  that  boasts  of  such  a  son  ! 


127 


II 


THE    COMPOSER'S    DOMESTIC 
LIFE 

AMONGST  the  thousands  that  came  together 
to  do  honor  to  the  composer's  memory  there 
was  neither  man,  woman  nor  child  who  could 
boast  that  Mozart's  blood,  though  never  so 
diluted,  flowed  in  his  or  her  veins.  Not  a 
single  descendant  of  Mozart  is  alive  to-day. 
In  1842  when  the  statue,  modelled  by 
Schwanthaler,  was  unveiled  in  the  Mozart- 
platz,  two  of  the  composer's  sons,  all  of  his 
children  that  had  outlived  infancy,  were  still 
living.  One  of  them,  the  younger,  who  re- 
ceived his  father's  name,  Wolfgang  Ama- 
deus,  and  adopted  his  father's  profession, 
attended  the  unveiling  ceremonies,  and  was 
appointed  Honorary  Chapelmaster  to  the 
Dom  Musikverein  and  the  Mozart eum.  Two 
years  later  he  died  at  Karlsbad  at  the  age  of 
fifty-three.  He  was  less  than  six  months 
old  when  his  illustrious  father  died,  and 
though  it  is  said  that  some  of  the  latter 's 
physical,  mental  and  moral  traits  were  pre- 
128 


HIS  DOMESTIC   LIFE 

served  in  him,  he  inherited  nothing  of  his 
genius.  He  was  a  respectable  musician, 
that  is  all.  His  elder  brother,  Carl,  born 
in  Vienna  in  1783,  lived  until  1858,  for  years 
filling  the  function  of  a  modest  Austrian 
official,  a  book-keeper  of  some  kind,  I  think, 
and  died  in  Milan.  Neither  of  the  two 
married,  and  with  Carl  the  name  of  Mozart 
died.  Within  the  nine  years  of  Mozart's 
married  life  (1782-1791)  six  children,  four 
sons  and  two  daughters,  were  born  to  him. 
Carl,  who  lived  longest  and  latest,  was  the 
first  born;  the  musical  son,  Wolfgang,  was 
the  last.  In  the  museum  housed  in  the 
building  No.  9  Getreidegasse,  third  floor, 
where  the  composer  was  born,  there  is  a 
counterfeit  presentment  of  the  two,  which 
was  painted  by  a  Danish  artist,  and  was  once 
the  property  of  Mozart's  widow,  who  be- 
queathed it  to  her  sister,  describing  it  in 
her  will  as  a  "painting  of  fraternal  affec- 
tion." Mozart  left  Salzburg  just  before  the 
birth  of  his  first  son,  and  never  saw  the  city 
after  1783. 

The  Augsburg  family  of  Mozart  (or  "Mot- 
zert,"  as  it  seems  from  recent  discoveries 
they  were  called  in  the  seventeenth  century) 
died  out  long  before  the  Sajzburg  family. 
Of  the  latter  the  only  descendants  are  in 
9  129 


A   MOZART  CENTENARY 

the  female  line.  Wolfgang's  sister,  Marie 
Anna,  or  Marianne,  (the  "  Nannerl "  of 
his  childhood's  letters,)  married  in  1784 
while  her  father  was  yet  alive.  She  had  a 
son  who  became  a  Mauthhauscontroleur  (tax 
official),  and  died  in  Bregenz  leaving  a 
daughter,  the  only  grand  niece  of  the  com- 
poser. This  daughter  became  the  wife  of  a 
military  official  in  Innsbruck,  who  afterward 
changed  his  habitation  to  Graz,  where  she 
gave  birth  to  a  son  who,  when  last  I  heard 
of  him,  was  a  lieutenant  in  a  Hanoverian 
regiment.  His  name  is  Gustav  Forster,  and 
he  is  presumably  the  last  of  the  female  line 
of  Mozarts.  His  whereabouts  was  not  known 
to  the  committee,  and  he  was  not  invited  to 
the  festival.  An  aged  widow,  the  Baroness 
von  Sonnenburg,  who  bears  some  relation, 
probably  by  marriage,  with  the  family  into 
which  Marie  Anna  married,  was  living  in 
1891  in  a  retreat  for  women  kept  by  some 
nuns  near  Salzburg.  She  was  invited  to 
attend  the  festival  but  returned  the  tickets 
on  the  ground  of  her  great  age  and  infirmity. 
Mozart's  widow  married  the  Danish  Coun- 
cillor Nissen,  author  of  a  biography  of  the 
composer,  in  1809,  and  lived  till  1820  in 
Copenhagen.  In  that  year  she  returned  to 
Salzburg,  and  died  in  March,  1842,  just  as 
130 


HIS   DOMESTIC  LIFE 

the  model  of  Schvvanthaler's  statue  reached 
the  city. 

The  musical  Bachs  lived  through  so  many 
generations  that  their  family  name  became 
a  generic  one  for  the  town-musicians  in 
Thuringia.  The  musical  Beethovens  num- 
bered several  generations  before  their  cul- 
mination in  the  master  to  whom  Mozart 
surrendered  his  sceptre.  The  strong  root, 
the  perfect  flower  and  fruit,  the  withered 
tree  of  the  musical  Mozarts  were  all  com- 
passed by  a  century  and  a  quarter.  The 
year  1719  saw  the  birth  of  Leopold,  the 
year  1844  the  death  of  his  grandson,  Wolf- 
gang Amadeus. 

There  was  no  grave  to  deck  with  flowers.  \ 
Mozart's  body  was  lowered  into  a  pauper's   ) 
grave,  and  not  a  single  loving  eye  took  note 
of  the  spot.     The  widow  was  ill  and  did  not 
attend  the  burial.     A  few  friends  who  went 
as  far  as  the  church  when  the  last  words 
were  said  were  deterred  from  going  farther 
by  a  storm  of  rain  and  snow.     For  months 
the   widow    seemed    indifferent    as    to    the 
disposition    of    the   mortal    remains   of   her 
husband,  whose  genius  she  never  half  appre- 
ciated, and  when  tardy  inquiries  were  made   . 
it  was  impossible  to  learn  where  the  grave    I 
had  been  dug.     The  case  seems  incompre- 


hensible,  but  by  a  strange  coincidence  it 
was  repeated  forty-eight  years  later  in  New- 
York,  when  Da  Ponte,  the  librettist  of  "  Don 
Giovanni,"  "  Le  Nozze  di  Figaro  "  and  "  Cosi 
fan  tutte,"  was  buried.  In  some  respects 
the  mystery  of  the  poet's  burial  was  even 
stranger  than  that  of  the  composer.  Mozart  \ 
died  neglected  by  his  friends  and  was  buried  I 
as  a  pauper;  Da  Ponte  was  surrounded  by 
rich  and  influential  friends  to  the  last,  and 
some  of  the  most  eminent  men  in  New- York 
City  followed  his  body  in  procession  to  the 
grave.  The  Italian  societies  of  the  city 
started  a  movement  to  erect  a  monument  to 
his  memory,  yet  when,  in  1887,  I  made  a 
most  diligent  and  painstaking  search  I  could 
not  find  a  trace  of  his  burial  place,  and  it 
was  only  with  difficulty  that  the  fact  could 
be  established  that  the  interment  had  taken  , 
place  in  the  old  Eleventh-Street  Cemetery,  j 
More  than  this,  even  the  official  record  of 
his  death  is  wrong  in  the  city's  books. 

There  is  a  tradition,  which  seems  well  sup- 
ported, that  Mozart's  widow  and  her  second 
husband,  with  whom  she  lived  in  such  com- 
fort and  contentment  as  she  never  knew  dur- 
ing her  first  marriage,  were  interred  in  the 
grave  first  occupied  by  the  composer's  father. 
It  is  in  the  Sebastian  Kirchhof  in  Salzburg. 
132 


HIS   DOMESTIC  LIFE 

Madame  Nissen,  she  who  had  been  Con- 
stanze  Mozart,  n<!e  Weber  (she  was  own  cou- 
sin to  the  composer  of  "  Der  Freischiitz "), 
outlived  her  second  husband  sixteen  years 
and  though  she  had  not  taken  the  trouble  to 
note  the  location  of  Mozart's  grave  she  pro- 
vided Nissen  with  a  tombstone  and  an  epi- 
taph which  celebrated  all  his  virtues  and 
worldly  achievements  and  wound  up  with  a 
pitiful  example  of  mortuary  verse.  Thirty 
years  ago  the  old  grave-digger  who  had 
buried  the  pair  used  to  tell  visitors  that  the 
grave  in  which  Nissen  was  first  laid  and 
then  his  widow  had  been  that  of  the  com- 
poser's father.  Of  that  fact  Constanze  left 
no  sign.  Plainly  the  tender  care  which  she 
received  from  the  petty  Danish  Councillor 
weaned  her  from  whatever  love  she  had  left 
for  the  Mozarts. 

More  than  all  else  that  is  known  of  the\ 
composer,    the  circumstances  of   his  burial  \ 
testify  to  the  struggle  against  poverty  which   i 
the    most  generously  gifted    musician    that 
ever  lived  had  to  fight.     Most  mournfully  do^sj 
they  also  tell  of  the  hollowness  of  the  affec- 
tion   of    those   who   called    themselves   his 
friends  (I  fear  also  of  the  indifference  of  his    / 
wife),  of  the  depravity  of  the  social  instincts, 
as  well  as  the  artistic  appreciation  of  the 


A  MOZART   CENTENARY 

Viennese  public  of  a  century  ago:  Why  the 
simple  beauty  of  Mozart's  music  should  have 
strained  the  capacity  of  the  Viennese  a  little 
more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  it  is  difficult 
to  understand,  but  nothing  is  truer  than  that 
in  his  lifetime  the  unique  position  that  he 
now  occupies  in  our  appreciation  was  never 
given  to  Mozart.  His  popularity  never 
reached  that  of  Salieri,  for  instance,  whose 
operas  triumphed  over  Mozart's  as  easily  as 
a  quarter  of  a  century  later  Rossini '  s  measures 
prevented  appreciation  of  Beethoven's.  This 
was  true  not  only  in  Vienna,  but  throughout 
Germany.  It  was  with  no  little  astonish- 
ment that  I  took  note,  while  investigating 
the  records  of  the  Grand  Ducal  Theatre  at 
Weimar  during  Goethe's  artistic  adminis- 
tration, of  the  fact  that  Mozart's  operas  were 
outnumbered  in  performance  many  times  by 
the  works  of  pigmies  whose  names  are  now 
forgotten,  to  say  nothing  of  composers  like 
Weigl,  Salieri  and  Dittersdorf.  In  spite  of 
its  production  of  geniuses,  it  was  a  frivolous 
period  in  art.  In  opera  the  era  of  extrava- 
gant spectacle  was  just  past,  and  the  dra- 
matic spirit  begotten  by  Gluck  and  Mozart 
was  yet  in  its  swaddling  clothes.  The  vocal 
\yirtuoso  was  still  dominant. 

The  relics  of  the  Mozart  family  preserved 
'34 


HIS  DOMESTIC  LIFE 

in  Salzburg  do  not  help  a  visitor  to  realize 
the  fact  that  Mozart  lived  in  poverty.  One 
reason  of  this  is  that  outside  of  the  manu- 
scripts (autograph  letters  and  compositions) 
the  majority  of  them  either  date  back  to  his 
childhood  or  came  from  well-to-do  sources. 
It  might  serve  a  purpose  if  the  official  in- 
ventory of  his  possessions  taken  after  his 
death  were  obtained  from  the  archives  at 
Vienna  and  displayed  in  the  room  where  he 
was  born.  Even  Otto  Jahn  neglected  to 
reprint  this  pitifully  eloquent  document  in 
his  exhaustive  biography.  Its  items  deserve 
to  be  made  public;  they  are  as  follows: 
Cash,  sixty  florins;  arrears  of  salary  (eight 
hundred  florins  a  year),  one  hundred  and 
thirty-three  florins,  twenty  kreutzers;  cred- 
its (appraised  as  worthless),  eight  hundred 
florins;  three  silver  tablespoons  valued  at 
seven  florins;  clothing  and  linen,  forty-nine 
florins;  table  linen,  seventeen  florins;  fur- 
niture in  the  first  room,  twenty-one  florins; 
in  the  second,  eighty-two  florins,  thirty  kreut- 
zers; in  the  third,  sixty-four  florins;  the  prin- 
cipal item  being  a  billiard  table  valued  at 
sixty  florins;  in  the  fourth,  one  hundred  and 
eighty-nine  florins,  the  principal  item  here 
being  a  pianoforte,  "with  pedal,"  valued 
at  eighty  florins;  library,  seventy  florins. 
135 


A  MOZART  CENTENARY 

Estimating  the  florin  at  its  present  value  in  j 
American  money  the  property  which  Mozart 
left  at  his  death  was  worth  less  than  three  / 
hundred  dollars. 

The  two  rooms  in  which  Leopold  Mozart 
lived  in  the  Getreidegasse,  in  one  of  which 
the  composer  was  born  in  1756,  are  modest 
enough  in  good  sooth,  but  they  do  not  differ 
from  those  in  which  the  majority  of  Salz- 
burg's citizens  live  to-day.  The  house  it- 
self is  of  the  architectural  style  and  degree 
of  comfort,  or  want  of  comfort,  found  in  hun- 
dreds of  its  fellows.  It  partakes  of  the 
essential  characteristics  of  Salzburg,  which 
are  closeness  and  gloominess.  The  low 
stairway  by  which  one  ascends  to  the  third 
floor  is  of  stone  and  vaulted.  As  life  was 
in  Salzburg  one  hundred  years  ago,  as  life 
is  in  Salzburg  to-day,  a  poet  might  occupy 
the  rooms.  So  might  a  shoemaker.  I  dare 
say  the  juxtaposition  of  poet  and  shoemaker 
might  be  found  in  the  town  now.  The  fam- 
ily portraits  in  oil  on  the  walls,  though  of 
no  value  as  works  of  art,  give  the  impres- 
sion that  the  Mozarts  were  in  comfortable 
circumstances. 

To  those  unfamiliar  with  the  keyed  instru- 
ments of  his  day,  the  composer's  clavichord 
and  pianoforte,    which   are    on   exhibition, 
136 


HIS   DOMESTIC   LIFE 

teach  a  useful  object  lesson.  Very  wisely, 
they  are  kept  strung  up  and  tuned,  and  there 
is  no  prohibition  against  touching  them. 
Many  times  in  the  course  of  festival  week 
strains  from  Mozart's  compositions  came 
tinkling  from  the  corner  opposite  to  that  in 
which  little  Woferl's  cradle  stood.  The 
smaller  instrument  is  generally  called  a 
spinet  in  the  books,  but  this  is  an  error;  it 
is  a  clavichord,  the  strings  being  struck  by 
a  bit  of  brass  on  the  end  of  each  key,  not 
plucked  by  a  quill  as  in  the  case  of  the 
spinet.  The  thriftiness  of  the  times  is  sug- 
gested by  the  sight  of  a  package  of  "The 
Genuine  Court  Plaister,  London,"  which  a 
memorandum,  supposed  to  be  in  the  hand- 
writing of  Nissen,  says  was  brought  by 
Mozart  from  London.  On  his  visit  to  the 
English  metropolis  he  was  seven  years  old. 
Evidently  Woferl  was  not  permitted  to  play 
with  a  penknife ;  otherwise  a  single  package 
of  court  plaster  would  not  have  lasted  him 
throughout  his  boyhood  and  a  score  of  years 
beyond. 

The  other  spots  in  Salzburg  with  which 
the  name  of  Mozart  is  associated  invite  re- 
flections concerning  the  social  and  artistic 
life  of  the  period  in  which  he  lived  chiefly. 
Personal  memories,  poetical  though  not  alto- 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

gather  savory,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  his 
biographer  to  purge  his  private  character, 
cling  around  the  little  house  on  a  slope  of 
the  Capuzinerberg  which  was  brought  from 
Vienna  and  in  which  in  the  summer  of  1791 
Mozart  completed  his  "  Zauberflote. "  The 
tales  of  the  life  which  Mozart  led  with  roys- 
tering  companions  of  both  sexes  in  this  tiny 
box  of  a  house  (it  consists  of  but  one  room 
and  is  not  more  than  twenty  feet  long  and 
fifteen  wide)  are  discredited  now,  but  it  is 
not  impossible  that  they  account,  to  some 
extent,  for  the  unfeeling  conduct  of  Con- 
stanze,  the  widow,  touching  his  grave.  To 
attribute  his  death  to  dissipations  indulged 
in  during  the  last  summer  of  his  life  is  prob- 
ably as  foolish  a  performance  as  the  latter 
day  effort  to  present  him  as  a  model  of  con- 
jugal fidelity  and  affection.  The  "Zauber- 
flotehauschen, "  as  it  is  called,  is  now  a 
museum  of  portraits  and  commemorative 
wreaths.  The  cathedral  in  which  some  of 
the  precocious  boy's  religious  music  was 
first  heard,  is  a  magnificent  edifice  which, 
when  contrasted  in  company  with  the  Archi- 
episcopal  palaces  and  gardens,  with  the  ab- 
surdly small  and  wretched  theatre,  speaks 
volumes  concerning  the  attitude  of  the 
Prince-Archbishops  of  Salzburg  toward  art. 
138 


HIS   DOMESTIC   LIFE 

Opposite  the  theatre,  in  what  is  now  called 
the  Markartplatz,  is  another  house,  which 
was  occupied  by  the  family  of  Leopold  as  a 
dwelling,  from  which  Wolfgang  departed 
when  he  left  the  service  of  the  Prince-Arch- 
bishop and  betook  himself  to  Vienna.  Like 
the  birth-house  it  is  disfigured  by  a  sign 
reaching  entirely  across  the  front  announc- 
ing the  fact  that  it  is  "  Mozart's  Wohnhaus." 
A  tasteful  tablet,  it  seems,  would  not  have 
proclaimed  the  pride  which  Salzburg  feels 
at  having  given  birth  to  such  a  son  with 
sufficient  emphasis.  It  took  gilded  letters 
a  foot  and  a  half  high  to  do  that. 

Travellers  know  the  marvellous  natural 
beauty  of  Salzburg's  position  in  the  valley 
of  the  Salzach  —  how  snugly  a  portion  of  it 
nestles  under  the  cliffs  of  the  Monchsberg 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  hugging  the 
sheer  rock  so  closely  that  it  actually  over- 
hangs the  houses  in  one  of  the  streets  and 
how,  where  the  valley  widens  toward  Ho- 
hensalzburg,  crowned  by  the  castle-fortress, 
it  opens  out  in  the  squares,  each  with  its 
quaint  fountain  or  statue,  that  afford  ap- 
proaches to  the  few  large  structures  in  the 
city.  Except  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the 
river,  where  the  graceful  slopes  of  the  Capu- 
zinerberg  give  easy  foothold  to  lovely  villas 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

that  smile  from  out  the  deep  foliage  of  gar- 
dens and  forests,  and  the  wider  plain  left  by 
the  retreat  of  the  mountains  from  the  river 
is  filled  by  buildings  of  a  modern  type,  the 
idea  of  spaciousness  is  utterly  foreign  to  the 
town.  The  streets  are  narrow  and  wind 
about  in  the  most  bewildering  manner,  fol- 
lowing in  a  general  but  devious  way  the 
course  of  the  river.  Cross  streets  are  few; 
in  fact,  glancing  along  the  house-fronts  one 
might  easily  fancy  that  the  need  of  going 
across-town  had  never  occurred  to  the  build- 
ers. Instead  of  cross  streets  there  are  hun- 
dreds of  arched  courts  which  afford  passage 
from  one  winding  street  to  another.  The 
general  effect,  enhanced  by  the  narrowness 
of  the  streets,  is  one  of  prison-like  gloomi- 
ness, and  only  the  bright  sunlight  of  festival 
week  and  the  banners  which  hung  from  the 
majority  of  the  houses  gave  the  city  a  cheery 
appearance.  No  vista  being  more  than  one 
or  two  hundred  feet  long,  a  few  bits  of  bunt- 
ing had  great  decorative  potency.  The 
Mozartplatz  was  quite  gayly  caparisoned, 
flowering  plants  being  banked  around  the 
base  of  the  Mozart  statue,  and  rows  of  fes- 
tooned standards  bounding  the  entire  square. 
The  torchlight  procession  of  the  first  night 
and  garden  fete  of  the  second  were  marred 
140 


HIS  DOMESTIC   LIFE 

by  rain,  but  the  enthusiasm  of  the  partici- 
pants in  the  former  was  proof  against  the 
wet.  The  line  of  march  was  not  curtailed 
a  foot,  the  procession  numbered  thousands, 
including  some  of  the  artists  of  the  festival. 
As  each  division  reached  the  Mozart  monu- 
ment a  large  wreath  of  laurel  was  deposited 
beside  the  pedestal.  Finally  the  united 
singers  of  the  town,  who  had  already  halted 
and  sung  in  front  of  the  birth-house,  raised 
the  strains  of  Mozart's  "Bundeslied,"  after 
which  the  torches  (which  were  immense 
candles  instead  of  oil  lamps)  were  extin- 
guished. The  most  costly  feature  of  the 
celebration  was  the  garden  fete  in  the  Mira- 
bel Igarten.  On  the  attendance  here  the 
financial  outcome  of  the  festival  depended. 
Rain  came  rather  early  in  the  evening,  but 
the  old  palace  grounds  were  already  crowded 
at  fifty  kreutzers  a  head,  and  the  committee 
were  saved.  There  was  a  deficit,  but  it  was 
trifling. 


141 


Ill 

MUSIC   AT    THE   FESTIVAL 

As  may  have  already  been  surmised,  there 
was  a  great  contrast  between  the  musical 
features  of  the  centennial  celebration  of 
Mozart's  death  and  the  festival's  external 
conditions  and  circumstances.  This  con- 
trast, however,  was  a  generous  contributor 
to  the  amiability  which  characterized  the 
occasion.  In  it  was  reflected  some  of  the 
geniality  and  the  simplicity  of  the  great 
composer's  nature.  Though  ten  thousand 
persons  listened,  lovingly  and  reverentially, 
to  the  "  Requiem "  in  the  cathedral,  only 
about  four  hundred  and  fifty  were  privileged 
to  attend  the  festival  representation  of  "  The 
Marriage  of  Figaro,"  which  brought  the 
celebration  to  a  close.  The  four  hundred 
and  fifty  enjoyed  a  rare  sensation,  to  which 
sentiment  contributed  quite  as  much  as  the 
performance;  the  excluded  thousands  ac- 
cepted the  situation  with  charming  good 
humor.  Between  the  mass,  which  opened 
142 


MUSIC   AT   THE  FESTIVAL 

the  festival,  and  the  opera,  which  brought 
it  to  a  close,  were  two  concerts  by  the  Phil- 
harmonic Society  of  Vienna,  under  the  di- 
rection of  Wilhelm  Jahn,  director  of  the 
Imperial  Court  Opera.  These  concerts  took 
place  in  the  Aula  Academica,  a  plain,  old- 
fashioned  hall,  in  which  candles  are  still 
depended  on  for  light  when  the  room  is 
used  at  night.  Here  again  the  seating  ac- 
commodations, though  three  times  as  great 
as  those  of  the  theatre,  were  inadequate. 
Yet  the  good  humor  of  the  visitors  suffered 
no  impairment. 

The  environment  was  provincial,  the  con- 
certs metropolitan.  Much  of  the  music 
dated  from  the  last  year  of  Mozart's  life. 
The  "  Requiem  "  was  the  last  composition 
in  his  thoughts;  he  did  not  live  to  finish  it. 
The  symphonies  played  were  those  in  G 
minor  and  C  major  ("Jupiter"),  both  writ- 
ten in  the  summer  of  1788.  The  "Bundes- 
lied,"  sung  before  the  monument  on  the 
conclusion  of  the  torchlight  procession,  dates 
from  his  death-year.  The  opera  "  Le  Nozze 
di  Figaro "  was  produced  five  years  before 
his  death.  Its  choice  for  representation  was 
doubtless  clue  to  the  fact  that  the  stage  of 
the  theatre  is  too  small  to  permit  the  mount- 
ing of  "  Die  Zauberflote, "  obviously  the  right 
M3 


A  MOZART   CENTENARY 

choice  for  the  festival  as  a  product  of  the 
composer's  last  year.  "  Don  Giovanni  "  was 
first  announced  by  the  committee,  but  the 
opera  based  on  Beaumarchais's  comedy  was 
substituted  for  it,  probably  because  the  cen- 
tenary of  Mozart's  masterpiece  had  been 
celebrated  in  1887.  The  circumstance  that 
the  occasion  was  also  a  centennial  anniver- 
sary of  the  composition  of  "  Die  Zauberflote  " 
was  also  remembered  in  the  compilation  of 
the  programme  of  the  first  concert  in  the 
Aula  Academica  on  July  16,  at  n  A.  M., 
one-third  of  which  was  devoted  to  excerpts 
from  the  work,  which,  according  to  the  dic- 
tum of  Beethoven,  is  to  be  set  down  as  the 
first  essentially  German  opera. 

The  forces  employed  in  the  performance 
of  the  "  Requiem "  were  a  chorus  selected 
from  the  cathedral  choir,  the  women's  choir 
of  the  Mozarteum,  and  the  men's  singing 
societies  of  Salzburg ;  the  orchestras  of  the 
Dom  Musikverein  and  the  Mozarteum ;  Mes- 
dames  E.  Brandt-Forster,  and  Louise  Kau- 
lich  and  Messieurs  Gustave  Walter  and 
Franz  von  Reichenberg,  of  the  Court  Opera 
at  Vienna.  J.  F.  Hummel,  director  of 
the  Mozarteum,  conducted  the  performance. 
The  choir  numbered  two  hundred  voices  and 
was  an  admirable  body  whose  singing  re- 
144 


MUSIC   AT  THE   FESTIVAL 

fleeted  greater  credit  on  the  city  than  the 
orchestral  accompaniment,  which,  though 
satisfactory,  was  not  remarkable.  The  in- 
adequacy of  the  instrumental  part  of  the 
performance  was  explained  by  Director  Hum- 
mel on  the  ground  of  a  restriction  in  number 
compelled  by  the  dimensions  of  the  choir- 
loft.  He  had  to  choose  between  a  large 
choir  with  small  orchestra  and  a  large  or- 
chestra with  small  choir.  Arguing  correctly 
enough  that  the  "  Requiem  "  was  essentially 
a  choral  composition,  he  chose  the  former. 
Instrumental  music  is  cultivated  with  great 
assiduity  and  earnestness  in  the  conserva- 
tory connected  with  the  Mozarteum,  Direc- 
tor Hummel  compelling  every  free  student 
of  the  pianoforte  or  violin  to  take  up  a  wind 
instrument  in  addition,  and  I  could  easily 
believe  him  when  he  said  that  it  was  not  a 
want  of  orchestral  players  but  a  want  of  room 
in  the  gallery  which  invited  to  the  only  crit- 
icism that  was  passed  upon  the  artistic  side 
of  the  performance. 

For  the  first  concert  in  the  Aula  this  was 
the  programme : 

Excerpts  from  "  Die  Zauberflote." 

(a)  Overture. 

(b)  Duet,  "  Bei  Mannern  welche  Liebe  fuhlen." 

(Mme.  E.  Brandt- Forster  and  Josef  Bitter.) 
10  145 


A   MOZART    CENTENARY 

(c)  Air :  "  In  diesen  heil'gen  Hallen."     (Franz 

von  Reichenberg.) 

(d)  Air :  "  Dies  Bildniss  ist  bezaubernd  schon." 

(Gustav  Walter.) 

(e)  Famine? s  grand  air.  (Mme.  Brandt- Forster.) 

(f)  Air  and  chorus  :"  O  Isis  und  Osiris."  (Franz 

von  Reichenberg  and  Salzburger  Lieder- 

tafel.) 

Concerto  for  Pianoforte  in  D  minor.     (Madame 
Essipoff-Leschetizky.) 
Symphony  in  G  minor. 

The  programme  of  the  second  concert  at 
the  same  hour  on  the  third  day  of  the  festi- 
val, July  17,  was  this: 

String  quartet,  D  minor.  (The  Hellmesberger 
Quartet,  of  Vienna.) 

Air  from  "  Cosi  fan  tutte."     (Gustav  Walter.) 

Adagio  from  the  quintet  in  G  minor.  (String 
orchestra.) 

Air  from  "  Die  Entfuhrung  aus  dem  Serail." 
(Mme.  Marie  Wilt.) 

Songs  :  "Das  Veilchen,"  "Vergiss  Mein  Nicht" 
and  "  Wiegenlied."  (Fraulein  Frederike  Mayer.) 

"Jupiter"  Symphony. 

It  has  been  said  that  Mozart's  music  can 

only  be  heard  in  its  perfection  in  Vienna.     I 

do  not  know  how  this  may  be ;  I  have  heard 

many  poor  Mozart  singers  who  hailed  from 

146 


MUSIC   AT  THE   FESTIVAL 

the  Austro-Hungarian  Court  Opera,  but  I 
am  willing  to  believe  that  those  who  live  in 
the  social  and  artistic  atmosphere  of  Vienna 
for  a  time  may  acquire  a  sympathetic  appre- 
ciation for  the  spirit  of  Mozart  which  the 
people  of  a  colder  and  more  phlegmatic  north 
will  never  imbibe.  The  dividing  line  be- 
tween musical  creation  and  recreation  is 
exceedingly  fine  —  that  fact  it  is  which 
makes  it  possible  for  an  executive  musician 
to  become  entitled  to  the  name  of  artist  — 
and  unless  an  interpreter  can  feel  with  some 
of  its  original  potency  the  influence  that  im- 
pelled the  composer,  his  interpretation  will 
speak  a  different  dialect,  if  not  a  different 
tongue,  from  that  native  to  the  composition. 
I  would  rather  find  an  explanation  of  the 
beauty  of  the  Philharmonic  Society's  per- 
formance of  the  two  symphonies  in  this  re- 
lationship between  the  composer  and  his 
interpreters,  difficult  as  it  may  be  to  ana- 
lyze, than  to  rest  on  that  weak  reed  com- 
monly spoken  of  as  tradition.  Musical 
tradition  is  a  very  uncertain  quantity.  The 
Bayreuth  festivals  have  failed  to  preserve 
Wagner's  manner,  though  established  and 
maintained  for  that  very  purpose.  Yet  the 
Bayreuth  festivals  are  only  twenty-two  years 
old,  and  Wagner  has  been  dead  less  than  two 
*47 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

decades.  Nevertheless,  the  strongest  wish 
that  I  felt  while  listening  to  the  two  sym- 
phonies on  this  occasion  was  to  believe  that 
it  was  thus  that  they  sounded  in  the  inspired 
fancy  of  their  creator.  Of  the  weak  senti- 
mentality with  which  so  many  conductors 
infuse  Mozart's  music  there  was  not  a  trace 
in  Herr  Jahn's  interpretation.  All  was 
splendidly  sane  and  joyously  vigorous.  The 
muscularity  of  the  band's  string-tone  and 
its  ebullient  vivacity  in  the  minuet  of  the 
G-minor  Symphony  made  the  music  as  son- 
orous as  that  of  an  ultra  modern  composer 
utilizing  the  large  and  varied  apparatus  of 
to-day. 

The  spirit  thus  manifested  is  beyond 
question  inherent  in  Mozart's  great  works. 
It  is  the  element  that  has  preserved  them 
while  those  of  his  contemporaries  have 
perished.  So  far  as  it  is  permitted  us  to 
speak  of  immortality  in  connection  with  a 
musical  composition  (of  all  art  works  the 
most  perishable  by  reason  of  its  nature),  it 
is  this  spirit  which  made  Mozart's  chief 
works  immortal.  They  can  ever  be  read  so 
as  to  interpret  the  feelings  of  the  readers. 
The  thought  is  not  confined  by  its  formal 
investiture.  Yet  while  Herr  Jahn  read  the 
symphonies  in  this  vital  manner,  he  did  not 
148 


MUSIC   AT  THE  FESTIVAL 

in  any  way  distort  them.  Their  utterance 
remained  simple  and  ingenuous.  It  was 
particularly  gratifying  to  find  him  untouched 
by  the  desire  to  win  interest  for  the  music 
by  the  pedantic  devices  with  which  some 
conductors  are  now  seeking  to  make  plain 
the  purposes  of  composers,  as  they  say.  He 
did  not  distort  the  minuet  of  the  "Jupiter" 
symphony  by  playing  it  so  slowly  as  to  rob 
the  melody  of  its  native  character.  This  is 
a  part  of  the  mischief  that  has  resulted 
from  Wagner's  criticism  of  the  tempo  in 
which  Mendelssohn  and  other  conductors 
were  in  the  habit  of  playing  the  correspond- 
ing movement  in  Beethoven's  eighth  sym- 
phony. That  criticism  has  given  birth  to 
the  notion  that  a  symphonic  minuet  must  be 
played  in  the  tempo  of  the  old  dance  for 
which  Mozart  set  a  standard  in  the  minuet 
to  which  his  nobility  step  it  so  decorously 
in  the  first  finale  of  "  Don  Giovanni, "  —  a  no- 
tion which  never  occurred  to  either  Haydn, 
Mozart  or  Beethoven,  as  should  be  obvious 
enough  from  the  character  inherent  in  the 
themes  of  their  symphonic  minuets.  In  a 
less  degree,  but  still  very  noticeably,  the 
same  fresh  and  vigorous  style  of  reading 
marked  Madame  Essipoff's  playing  in  the 
concerto  —  especially  at  the  rehearsal  which 
149 


A  MOZART  CENTENARY 

had  been  thrown  open  to  the  public  at  the 
price  of  a  gulden,  in  order  to  accommodate 
the  many  who  could  not  obtain  tickets  to  the 
concert. 

The  festival  performance  of  Mozart's  comic 
opera,  which  concluded  the  centennial  cele- 
bration, took  place  in  the  Royal  Imperial 
Theatre.  Between  the  magnificence  of  this 
title  and  the  dimensions  and  appearance  of 
the  playhouse  there  is  a  discrepancy  which 
was  well  calculated  to  heighten  the  careless 
gayety  of  the  festive  solemnity.  The  the- 
atre dates  back  to  the  period  of  Mozart's 
slavery  under  the  Prince- Archbishop  Hiero- 
nymus  Colloredo.  Previous  to  1775  it  was 
a  Ballhaus,  In  that  year  it  was  transformed 
into  a  theatre.  After  my  experience  I  am 
inclined  to  believe  that  in  that  year,  too,  it 
was  hermetically  sealed,  in  order  to  preserve 
the  atmosphere  sanctified  by  the  exhalations 
from  the  archiepiscopal  body  of  the  pious 
Hieronymus.  Mozart  was  then  nineteen 
years  old,  and  for  two  years  longer  he  re- 
mained in  the  service  of  the  Prince-Arch- 
bishop as  concert-meister  of  the  Hofcapelle 
without  salary.  His  youthful  operas  had 
been  written  for  other  cities,  not  for  Salz- 
burg, whose  ruler  was  indisposed  to  give 
commissions,  which  might  have  cost  a  little 


MUSIC   AT  THE  FESTIVAL 

money,  to  the  genius  that  was  giving  the 
city  renown ;  but  as  the  Mozart  family,  who 
lived  directly  opposite  the  theatre,  across 
what  is  now  called  the  Markartplatz,  were 
industrious  theatre-goers,  it  is  unquestioned 
that  Wolfgang  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  the 
theatre,  and  doubtless  a  frequent  performer  at 
entertainments  there.  It  is  probable,  there- 
fore, that  when  I  stood  within  those  heitgen 
Hallen  and  inhaled  the  carefully  conserved 
atmosphere  of  a  century  ago,  I  breathed  the 
air  which  Mozart  had  breathed.  Strangely 
enough,  I  did  not  like  it.  The  idiosyncratic 
desire  of  a  nineteenth  century  American  for 
fresh  air  was  stronger  than  my  reverence  for 
this  Mozartian  relic,  but  it  availed  naught 
against  the  strong  repugnance  which  Ger- 
mans and  Austrians  feel  within  doors  for 
the  elixir  which  they  cannot  do  without 
when  they  are  eating  or  drinking.  Out  of 
doors  the  air  was  as  balmy  as  a  sleeping 
baby's  breath.  Had  it  been  stirred  into  a 
tornado  and  sent  down  the  backbone  of  every 
German  in  the  place,  with  his  chronic  sus- 
ceptibility to  taking  a  cold  increased  a  thou- 
sandfold by  the  internal  warmth  of  festal 
enthusiasm,  it  could  not  have  produced  a 
single  sneeze.  Yet  a  piteously  gentle  plea 
that  the  door,  behind  the  heavy  curtains  (so 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

hung  as  to  intercept  the  cupful  of  air  which 
might  surreptitiously  steal  into  the  audience- 
room  with  a  late-comer),  might  be  left  ajar 
a  few  inches  for  a  moment  between  the  acts, 
called  out  a  look  of  horror  on  a  score  of 
faces  and  an  awestricken  protestation  that  a 
draught  would  result  which  plainly  all  be- 
lieved would  be  deadlier  than  miners'  damp. 
So  the  half  dozen  Americans  in  the  audience 
sweltered  and  stewed  patiently  for  four  hours 
in  the  nauseous  atmosphere  of  the  playhouse 
and  tried  to  forget  the  approaching  headache 
in  the  enjoyment  of  Mozart's  music. 

This  Royal  Imperial  Theatre  has  the 
dimensions  of  such  a  suite  of  rooms  as  a 
thrifty  newspaper  reporter  can  hire  in  New 
York.  By  placing  benches  in  the  parquet 
instead  of  chairs  to  save  the  space  wasted  in 
ordinary  playhouses  by  the  chair-arms,  it  is 
made  to  accommodate  three  hundred  and  fifty 
human  beings  of  average  breadth  and  thick- 
ness. Several  more  could  find  room  were  it 
not  that  at  the  end  opposite  the  stage  there 
is  a  Royal  Imperial  box,  which,  I  fancy,  was 
once  the  Prince-Archiepiscopal  box.  Upon 
its  tawdry  upholstery  and  hangings,  I  doubt 
not,  the  eyes  of  Mozart,  only  twenty-one 
years  old  when  he  emancipated  himself  from 
the  slavery  in  which  his  spiritual  and  tem- 


MUSIC  AT  THE  FESTIVAL 

poral  lord  held  him,  often  fell.  On  this 
occasion  these  relics  of  a  former  tuppenny 
magnificence  surrounded  an  Austrian  Arch- 
duke, who  looked  through  his  opera  glasses 
at  a  few  young  women  whom  he  might  al- 
most have  touched  without  leaving  his  seat 
and  then  lost  interest  in  the  entertainment. 
By  opening  the  gallery  and  issuing  eighty 
tickets  for  standing  places,  the  committee 
raised  the  capacity  of  the  house  for  this  fes- 
tival representation  to  about  five  hundred. 
What  the  percentage  of  deaths  from  asphyxi- 
ation may  have  been  in  the  gallery  I  do  not 
know.  Not  hearing  of  any  deaths  I  took  it 
for  granted  that  there  were  no  Americans 
there.  The  proscenium  opening  may  have 
been  twenty  feet  broad  (I  am  disposed  to  be 
liberal  in  such  estimates)  and  the  same  num- 
ber of  feet  deep.  If  it  was  necessary  to  use 
the  theatre  these  dimensions  will  suggest 
an  explanation  of  the  conduct  of  the  Festi- 
val Committee  in  celebrating  the  hundredth 
anniversary  of  the  composition  of  "The 
Magic  Flute "  (for  the  centenary  of  that 
opera  and  the  "  Requiem  "  as  well  as  Mozart's 
death  was  commemorated  in  the  festival) 
in  relegating  the  music  of  Mozart's  mysti- 
cal phantasmagoria  and  singular  fairytale 
to  the  concert-room.  Yet  it  was  in  this 
'53 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

same  theatre  that  the  centennial  representa- 
tion of  "Don  Giovanni"  took  place  in  1887 
when  artists  like  Bianchi,  Marie  Lehmann 
(sister  of  the  greater  Lilli),  Reichmann, 
Staudigl  and  Marie  Wilt  sang  and  Hans 
Richter  wielded  the  baton.  With  the  actors' 
"cabin'd,  cribb'd,  confined,"  by  the  stage 
the  finale  of  the  first  act  of  Mozart's  master- 
piece must  have  looked  comical  enough.  In 
"LeNozze,"  Frau  Ende-Andriessen,  of  the 
Municipal  Opera  at  Cologne,  sang  the  part 
of  the  Countess.  In  respect  of  both  latitude 
and  longitude  she  meets  the  most  extrava- 
gant demands  of  Wagner's  Norse  heroines, 
and  when  she  "took"  the  stage  she  literally 
left  very  little  of  it  for  the  other  personages. 
Her  presence  in  the  final  garden  scene  sim, 
plified  the  work  of  concealment  which  makes 
up  so  much  of  the  "  business  "  of  the  act. 

The  characters  in  the  opera  were  in  the 
hands  of  the  following  artists:  Count  Alma- 
viva,  Josef  Ritter,  of  Hamburg  and  Vienna; 
The  Countess,  Frau  Ende-Andriessen,  of  Co- 
logne; Susanne,  Fraulein  Bianca  Bianchi, 
of  Buda-Pesth;  Cherubino,  Frau  Brandt- 
Forster,  of  the  Court  Opera  at  Vienna; 
Figaro,  Herr  Franz  Krolop,  of  the  Court 
Opera  at  Berlin;  Marcellina,  Frau  Louise 
Kaulich,  of  the  Court  Opera  at  Vienna; 


MUSIC   AT   THE    FESTIVAL 

Dr.  Bartolo,  Herr  Rudolf  Freny,  of  the 
Municipal  Opera  at  Hamburg;  Don  Basilio, 
Herr  Victor  Schmidt,  of  the  Court  Opera  at 
Vienna;  Guzman,  Herr  Anton  Schnitten- 
helm,  of  the  Court  Opera  at  Vienna;  Bar- 
bara, Fraulein  Anna  Hauser,  of  the  Court 
Opera  at  Vienna;  Antonio,  Herr  Benedikt 
Felix,  Court  Opera  at  Vienna.  The  con- 
ductor was  Director  J.  F.  Hummel,  of  the 
Mozarteum,  and  the  orchestra,  of  necessity 
small,  but  still  efficient,  was  a  local  body. 
Whether  or  not  German  singers  can  do 
justice  to  Mozart  has  always  been  a  question 
in  my  mind.  I  am  not  insensible  to  the 
fact  that  in  all  of  the  genial  master's  works 
there  is  a  something  in  which  the  sincerity 
of  German  feeling  is  manifest,  and  that  it 
is  largely  this  feeling  which  supplies  the 
element  that  has  preserved  his  operas  while 
those  of  his  rivals  have  been  forgotten.  In 
"The  Marriage  of  Figaro"  there  is  little 
playroom  for  honest  sentiment,  and  Mozart's 
music  is  as  lighthearted  and  careless  as  the 
play.  It  is  musical  champagne  from  begin- 
ning to  end,  varied  by  a  single  draught  of 
still  wine  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  act 
(Porge  amor}  —  and  that  an  Italian  sweet 
wine  rather  than  a  fragrant  Hock.  In  "  Don 
Giovanni,"  the  tragic  spirit  with  which 

tss 


A   MOZART  CENTENARY 

Mozart  infused  the  play  in  spite  of  Da 
Ponte's  purpose  that  the  buffo  element  should 
always  be  in  the  foreground,  gives  German 
interpreters  an  opportunity  to  exploit  the 
side  of  their  artistic  nature  which  is  essen- 
tially native  to  them  and  in  which  they  ex- 
cel. They  have  felt  with  Mozart,  while 
Italian  singers  have  felt  with  his  librettist. 
The  fate  of  Don  Juan  has  in  it  a  tragic 
awfulness  which  casts  its  shadow  before  for 
those  of  German  feeling;  for  the  Italian 
stage  artist  it  is  only  a  conclusion  to  the 
play  which  enables  Leporello,  in  hiding  un- 
der the  table,  to  amuse  the  spectators  by  an 
exhibition  of  clownish  fear.  Musical  com- 
edy of  the  Italian  type,  whose  loftiest  exam- 
ples are  the  Figaro  operas  of  Mozart  and 
Rossini,  demands  some  things  which  seem 
almost  impossible  to  German  singers.  Even 
when  they  use  the  Italian  language  they 
generally  fall  short  of  perfection,  because  of 
a  want  of  that  nimbleness  of  tongue  which  is 
easy  to  the  Latin.  When  an  opera  composed 
to  Italian  words  is  sung  in  German  the  re- 
tention of  all  of  its  comic  spirit  is  simply 
impossible.  The  volatile  utterance  which 
is  so  essential  an  element  in  music  of  this 
character  and  of  which  there  are  many  ex- 
amples in  "Figaro's  Marriage,"  is  utterly 
156 


MUSIC   AT   THE  FESTIVAL 

foreign  to  the  German  tongue.  A  German 
Dr.  Bartolo  is  inconceivable.  Even  if  the 
translator  should  show  due  regard  for  the 
bits  of  characterization  in  which  the  buffo 
music  of  Mozart  and  Rossini  abounds,  and 
should  have  the  most  perfect  command  of 
his  language,  he  would  inevitably  make  ship- 
wreck in  scores  of  places  on  the  consonantal 
rocks  which  are  strewed  all  over  the  German 
lingual  ocean. 

The  finale  of  the  second  act  of  "  The  Mar- 
riage of  Figaro "  is  a  model  of  ensemble 
writing  which  has  never  had  a  fellow.  In  it 
the  music  and  action  run  riot  and  a  race 
from  beginning  to  end,  each  accentuating 
the  points  made  by  the  other,  neither  ever 
hindering,  but  both  working  together  toward 
a  dramatic  climax  which  is  irresistible  in  its 
effect.  At  this  festival  performance,  the 
finale  was  sung  with  vastly  more  vivacity 
than  I  expected  to  find,  the  singers  bringing 
into  the  performance  some  of  the  gayety  and 
lightness  of  temperament  belonging  to  the 
Austrian  capital,  but  there  could  be  no 
escape  from  the  fetters  of  language.  The 
air  was  thick  with  sluggish  consonants  and 
lingering  sibilants.  This  lingual  clog  re- 
tarded the  merry  flood  of  music  throughout 
and  compelled  the  judicious  to  take  refuge 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

in  a  standard  of  judgment  recognizing  the 
insurmountable  difficulties  of  the  German 
book.  From  this  new  view-point  there  was 
much  to  admire  in  the  performance,  though 
the  voices  of  the  singers  were  deadened, 
deprived  of  all  resonance,  by  the  stagnant 
atmosphere  of  the  theatre.  The  honors 
were  easily  borne  off  by  Frau  Brandt-Fors- 
ter,  in  the  role  of  the  Page,  but  as  to  what 
proportion  of  her  success  was  due  to  her 
lovely  face  and  arch  acting  and  what  to 
her  voice  and  singing  I  shall  not  express 
an  opinion.  Brandt-Forster  was  popular  in 
Vienna.  Artistically,  I  was  told,  she  had  not 
met  the  expectations  of  Director  Jahn,  who 
on  the  expiration  of  her  first  engagement 
manifested  a  desire  to  let  her  seek  employ- 
ment elsewhere.  But  the  University  stu- 
dents were  enamoured  of  her  pretty  face,  and 
a  round-robin,  signed  by  about  three  hun- 
dred of  them,  brought  Herr  Jahn  to  terms. 
Which  incident  might  furnish  a  text  for  a 
sermon  on  the  influences  which  sway  the 
high  priests  in  our  art-temples,  in  Europe 
as  elsewhere,  if  I  were  disposed  to  preach. 
But  I  am  not. 


IV 

DA    PONTE    IN    NEW  YORK 

IT  was  a  sincere  cause  of  regret  in  the  fall 
of  1887,  when  the  principal  cities  of  Europe 
celebrated  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  the 
first  performance  of  "  Don  Giovanni,"  that 
the «season  of  opera  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  was  not  yet  begun.  Other- 
wise New  York  would  also  have  joined  in  the 
celebration,  in  which  it  had  a  unique  interest, 
from  the  fact  that  it  was  the  home  for  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  the  poet  who 
wrote  the  book  of  Mozart's  masterpiece.  At 
the  commemoration  by  the  Grand  Opera  of 
Paris  the  original  manuscript  score  of  the 
opera,  which  is  owned  by  Madame  Viardot- 
Garcia  (daughter  of  the  first  representative 
of  Don  Giovanni  in  the  United  States),  was 
exhibited  to  the  public  in  the  foyer  of  the 
Opera  House.  In  Dresden  the  Tonkiinstler- 
Verein,  hearing  that  Luigi  Bassi,  who 
"  created  "  the  role  of  the  dissolute  Don  at 
the  first  representation,  lay  buried  in  a 
Dresden  cemetery,  caused  the  singer's  long 
159 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

neglected  grave  to  be  restored  and  a  marble 
cross,  bearing  a  suitable  inscription,  to  be 
placed  over  it. 

Thus  was  a  simple  singer  honored,  while 
the  resting  places  of  the  colossal  genius  who 
created  the  music,  and  the  gifted  and  ingen- 
ious poet  who  provided  him  with  the  poetry 
to  which  he  might  wed  that  music,  must 
remain  without  a  distinguishing  mark. 
Mozart's  dust  lies  in  a  pauper's  grave  in 
Vienna;  but  where,  no  one  knows.  The 
grave  was  never  marked ;  the  plot  in  which 
it  was  made  was  one  that  was  dug  up  every 
ten  years  and  filled  anew.  A  storm  drove 
back  the  friends  who  started  out  to  attend 
the  burial,  and  no  one  saw  the  body  lowered 
except  the  sexton  and  his  assistants.  A 
noble  friend,  who  had  undertaken  the  care  of 
the  funeral  because  of  the  illness  of  Mozart's 
widow,  and  who  had  expended  eleven  florins 
and  thirty-six  kreutzers  on  it  (say  about  five 
dollars),  did  not  inquire  where  the  body  had 
been  put,  and  when  the  widow  visited  the 
churchyard,  after  her  recovery,  the  grave- 
diggers  had  been  changed  and  no  one  knew 
where  the  remains  of  the  great  musician  lay. 

That  was  in  December,  1791,  in  Vienna. 
Almost  half  a  century  later  Lorenzo  Da 
Ponte,  the  Italian  poet  who  had  been 
160 


DA   PONTE   IN  NEW  YORK 

Mozart's  friend  and  collaborator  with  him  on  \ 
three  operas,  "  Le  Nozze  di  Figaro,"  "  Don 
Giovanni,"  and  "  Cosi  fan  Tutte,"  died  in 
New  York.  He  had  lived  in  the  New  World 
a  full  generation,  —  more  than  one-third  of  a 
marvellously  checkered  life,  the  term  of 
which  embraced  the  birth  and  death  of 
Mozart,  Beethoven,  Schubert,  Byron,  Scott, 
and  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  and  the  entire 
creative  career  of  Haydn ;  he  had  been 
iniprovvisatore ,  professor  of  rhetoric,  and 
politician  in  his  native  land ;  poet  to  the 
Imperial  Theatre  and  Latin  secretary  to  the 
Emperor  in  Austria ;  *  Italian  teacher,  operatic 
poet,  litterateur,  and  bookseller  in  England; 
tradesman,  teacher,  opera  manager,  and 
bookseller  in  America.  He  had  enjoyed  the 
friendship  of  some  of  the  great  ones  of  the 
Old  World,  and  some  of  the  noble  ones 
of  the  New,  and  in  New  York  he  came 
nearer  to  finding  a  home  than  anywhere  in 
Europe.  He  died  within  the  recollection  of 

1  Da  Ponte  sometimes  spoke  of  himself  as  "  Poet  to  the 
Emperor  Joseph  II."  His  biographers  have  almost  unani- 
mously accepted  the  statement  that  he  was  what  these 
words  indicate,  a  poet  laureate,  or  "  Poeta  Cesario,"  of 
Austria.  Such  is  not  the  case.  In  a  foot-note  in  the  ap- 
pendix to  the  third  volume,  last  edition  of  his  "  Memorie," 
he  corrects  the  error,  saying  that  he  never  was  Caesarian 
poet,  but  that  his  title  was  "  Poet  to  the  Imperial  theatres." 
ii  161 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

many   persons    yet    alive,    and    men   whose 
names  shine  brightly  in  local  annals  followed 
him  to  his  grave ;  yet  the  exact  location  of 
that  grave  is  unknown.     In  August,  1887,  I 
made  a  laborious  search  for  it.     All  available 
records  pointed  to  the  old  Roman  Catholic 
cemetery  in  Eleventh-street,  between  Avenue 
A  and  First-avenue,   as  the  graveyard  that 
had  received  the  body  of  the  distinguished 
nonagenarian  just   forty-nine   years    before. 
The  place  is  overgrown  with  rank  grass  and 
weeds.     There   are   no    paths.     Those   who 
wish  to  read  the  inscriptions  on  the  head- 
stones must  stumble  along  as  best  they  can; 
now  over  irregular  hillocks,  now  into  deep 
depressions  half-filled  with  old  boots,  rusty 
tin  cans,  and  other  refuse.     Many  of  the  in- 
scriptions have  been  obliterated  by  the  action 
of  the  elements ;  some  of  the  stones  lie  prone 
upon  the  ground  (the  bones  which  once  they 
guarded  having  been  removed,  as  the  bright- 
eyed,  fresh-faced,  silver-haired  old  wife  of  the 
decrepit  keeper  explains),  and  in  one  place  a 
large  Ailantus  tree  in  growing  has  taken  up  a 
stone    half-way   into     itself.     For     hours    I 
crossed  and  recrossed  the  decaying  cemetery, 
scrutinizing  carefully  every  inscription;   but 
in  vain.     No  head-stone  was  found  bearing 
the  name    of  Da  Ponte,  and  there    are    no 
162 


DA   PONTE   IN   NEW  YORK 

records  to  identify  the  spot  where,  on  August 
20,  1838,  his  grave  was  dug. 

The  life  of  Lorenzo  Da  Ponte  has  not  often 
been  told ;  it  has  never  been  all  told,  and  the 
narratives  which  have  found  their  way  into 
print  are  full  of  inaccuracies.  In  Oulibi- 
scheff  s  book  on  Mozart  his  death  is  said  to 
have  occurred  in  December,  1838,  instead 
of  August,  and  when  the  municipality  of  his 
native  town,  about  a  generation  ago,  wanted 
to  erect  a  monument  to  him,  it  was  found 
necessary  to  apply  to  New  York  to  learn  the 
date  of  his  death.  If  at  that  time  an  answer 
was  returned  by  the  municipality  of  New 
York,  and  the  official  records  were  consulted 
for  the  information,  the  chances  are  that  an 
incorrect  date  was  sent  to  Ceneda,  for  the 
records  of  the  Health  Department  assert  that 
Lorenzo  Daponte  (thus  the  name  is  written)1 
died  on  .August  21,  1838,  which  was  four 
days  after  the  true  date  and  one  day  after  his 
burial.  The  books  are  equally  contradictory 
as  to  the  date  of  his  arrival  in  America,  and 
many  other  incidents  in  his  career.  Many  of 

1  It  is  curious  that  in  Longworth's  New  York  Directory 
Da  Ponte's  name  was  written  with  two  capital  letters  until 
1821,  and  that  thenceforward  it  remained  "  Daponte  "  until 
his  death.  Tuckerman  also  calls  him  "  Daponte."  The 
French  translator  of  the  "  Memorie,"  with  obvious  stu- 
pidity, calls  him  "  d'Aponte." 
163 


A  MOZART   CENTENARY 

these  contradictions  are  doubtless  due  to  the 
want  of  definiteness  which  characterizes  the 
Italian  autobiography  which  Da  Ponte  pub- 
lished in  New  York  seventy-five  years  ago.  In 
this  work,  which  has  been  translated  into  Ger- 
man and  French,  but  not  into  English,  Da 
Ponte  is  garrulous  enough  about  many  insig- 
nificant things,  but  silent  about  many  others  of 
vastly  more  importance,  and  his  biographers  in 
the  hand-books  on  music  and  literature  have 
pretty  generally  evinced  an  unwillingness  to 
be  guided  in  all  things  by  Da  Ponte's  own 
utterances.  My  inquiry,  which  occupied 
several  weeks,  discovered  many  interesting 
things  touching  the  American  career  of  Da 
Ponte,  some  having  almost  a  serio-comic 
aspect. 

Lorenzo  Da  Ponte  was  an  assumed  name. 
The  real  name  of  him  who  made  it  celebrated 
is  unknown.  He  was  the  son  of  a  Hebrew 
leather  dealer  in  Ceneda,  a  small  town  of  the 
Venetian  republic.  Until  his  fourteenth  year 
he  was  brought  up  a  Jew,  but  having  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
bishop  of  Ceneda,  Lorenzo  Da  Ponte,  by  his 
precocious  talents,  the  latter  gave  him  an 
education  and  his  name.1  After  five  years  of 

1  Whether  Da  Ponte  ever  took  orders  or  was  only  a 
self-styled    Abbe   is  not  clear.     In   a  scurrilous    Italian 
164 


DA   PONTE  IN  NEW  YORK 

study  he  went  to  Venice,  whence  amorous 
escapades  compelled  him  to  flee  to  Treviso. 
There  he  became  professor  of  rhetoric,  and 
candidate  for  office,  lampooned  his  opponent 
in  a  sonnet,  and  was  ordered  to  leave  the 
republic  of  Venice.  He  went  to  Dresden, 
then  to  Vienna,  where  Salieri  aided  him  and 
he  received  from  Joseph  II  the  position  of 
Poet  to  the  Imperial  Theatre  and  Latin 
Secretary.  There,  too,  he  fell  in  with 
Mozart,  who  asked  him  to  throw  Beau- 
marchais's  comedy,  "  Le  Mariage  de  Figaro," 
into  an  opera.  The  collaboration  was  the 
first  happy  one  that  Mozart  had  had,  and  the 
opera  was  a  tremendous  success,  especially  in 
Prague.  Mozart  promised  to  write  another 
opera  for  the  people  who  understood  him  so 
well,  and  this  time  Da  Ponte  suggested 
"  Don  Giovanni."  To  Da  Ponte,  therefore, 
belongs  the  credit  of  having  suggested  the 

pamphlet  directed  against  him,  printed  in  Lisbon,  there  is 
a  sonnet  inscribed  "  to  the  ineffable  merit  of  the  Jew, 
Lorenzo  Daponte,  poet  of  the  Italian  theatre  in  London, 
who,  after  having  been -converted  to  Christianity  in  the  city 
of  Venice,  embraced  the  churchly  state  so  successfully  that 
he  reached  the  dignity  of  a  priest ;  but  come  to  England, 
would  wear  no  other  robe  than  that  of  an  impostor,  and 
kicked  aside  the  '  Dominus  vobiscum,'  in  order  to  increase 
the  number  of  rascals."  A  reply  to  this  pamphlet,  which, 
it  may  be  safely  assumed,  came  from  Da  Ponte,  attributes 
the  authorship  to  one  Carlo  Francesco. 


A   MOZART  CENTENARY 

story  and  written  the  book  of  this  master- 
piece, whose  chances  of  immortality  are 
surely  as  great  as  those  of  any  other  musical 
composition.  Da  Ponte  won  the  ill  will  of 
Leopold,  and  when  Joseph  II  died  he  had  to 
leave  Vienna.  Meanwhile  he  had  married 
an  English  woman  at  Trieste,  whither  he 
went  to  seek  a  reconciliation  with  Leopold. 
Armed  with  a  letter  to  Marie  Antoinette,  who 
had  admired  some  of  his  works,  he  started 
for  Paris,  but  when  he  got  to  Spires  "  it  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  French  and  Antoinette 
was  a  prisoner  in  the  temple."  He  changed 
his  plans  and  went  to  London,  where  a  year 
later  he  became  poet  to  the  Italian  Opera 
and  aided  Taylor  in  the  management.  He 
also  started  a  bookstore  and  went  into  the 
printing  business.  The  latter  venture  and 
his  indorsement  of  Taylor's  bills  involved 
him  financially,  and  fleeing  from  the  officers 
of  the  law  he  came  to  America. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  my  investigations 
began,  and  their  first  result  was  to  establish 
the  date  of  Da  Ponte's  arrival  in  America. 
Grove's  "  Dictionary  of  Music  and  Musi- 
cians "  says  that  he  sailed  from  England 
March  5,  1803;  H.  T.  Tuckerman  wrote  in 
an  article  in  "  Putnam's  Magazine  "  that  he 
arrived  at  Philadelphia  on  June  4,  1802;  F. 
166 


DA   PONTE   IN   NEW  YORK 

L.  Ritter  lands  him  in  May,  1803.  All  agree 
that  his  financial  troubles  drove  him  from 
England.  Now  for  the  new  evidence.  In 
the  library  of  the  New  York  Historical 
Society  there  is  a  copy  of  a  pamphlet  which 
hitherto  has  remained  unmentioned  by  all 
who  have  written  on  Da  Ponte  so  far  as  can 
be  learned.  It  was  his  first  public  utterance 
in  America,  and  was  evidently  designed  as 
the  first  of  a  series  of  publications  to  be  cir- 
culated among  his  Italian  scholars  in  this 
city.  It  is  in  Italian,  with  an  English  trans- 
lation, and  the  copy  in  question  was  uncut 
until  it  fell  into  the  writer's  hands.  Here  is 
the  title  in  English : 

Compendium  of  the  Life  of  Lorenzo  Da  Ponte, 
written  by  Himself,  to  which  is  added  the  first 
Literary  Conversazione  held  at  His  House  in  New 
York  on  the  loth  day  of  March,  1807,  consisting 
of  several  Italian  compositions  in  verse  and  prose, 
translated  into  English  by  his  scholars.  New 
York,  printed  by  I.  Riley  &  Co.,  1807. 

Da  Ponte's  motive  for  printing  this  pam- 
phlet is  told  in  the  brief  prefatory  address 
"To  the  Reader,"  as  follows: 

It  is  now  a  long  while  since  I  promised  to  my 
friends  the  story  of  my  life.     I  will  shortly  fulfil 
167 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

my  promise.  Certain  reasons  have,  however,  in- 
duced me  to  publish,  for  the  present,  these  few 
hints.  If  they  ever  reach  England  I  hope  those 
persons  may  read  them  who  are  unjustly  taking 
advantage  of  my  absence  to  deprive  me  even  of 
that  little  which  has  escaped  the  hands  of  fraud ; 
and  which  I  entrusted  before  my  departure  to  ap- 
parent honesty.  I  wish  to  conceal  their  names 
under  the  veil  of  charity,  if  I  can  no  longer  under 
that  of  friendship ;  and,  if  they  be  willing,  it  is  not 
too  late. 

In  this  "  Compendium  "  Da  Ponte  hurries 
over  the  greater  portion  of  his  life-history. 
His  departure  from  Venice,  he  chronicles 
thus:  "I  was  obliged  to  leave  Venice,  the 
place  of  my  nativity,  for  having  associated 
myself  with  an  illustrious  person  whose 
efforts  were  directed  to  her  preservation." 
To  his  London  history  is  added  the  informa- 
tion that  before  he  became  poet  to  the  royal 
theatre  he  spent  a  year  "  totally  destitute  of 
employment  "  and  then  went  to  Holland  for 
the  purpose  of  establishing  there  an  Italian 
theatre.  He  was  encouraged  in  the  project, 
and  had  almost  succeeded,  "  when  the  defeat 
of  the  English  under  Dunkirk  changed  the 
face  of  affairs."  He  remained  in  his  position 
of  theatrical  poet  eight  years,  "  with  much 
profit  and  not  without  honor,"  he  says,  and 
168 


DA   PONTE   IN   NEW  YORK 

then  continues :  "  It  was  snatched  from  me 
by  means  of  some  female  artifices  at  a 
moment  when  I  had  the  least  apparent 
reason  to  apprehend  such  a  loss."  What  is 
referred  to  in  these  words  is  not  clear.  Da 
Ponte  had  the  reputation  of  a  gallant,  and 
even  in  his  old  age  could  not  resist  the 
temptation  to  discourse  on  the  favor  in 
which  he  had  stood  with  the  fair  sex  and  the 
fidelity  with  which  he  had  lived  up  to  every 
promise  to  love  a  woman  made  between  the 
period  when  he  first  experienced  the  passion, 
at  eighteen  years,  to  the  time  of  his  marriage, 
when  he  was  forty.  Later  in  his  pamphlet 
he  refers  to  the  money  which  his  wife  had 
earned  by  "  her  own  honorable  industry," 
and  appends  this  foot-note :  "  Do  you 
understand  the  meaning  of  that  word,  once 
beautiful  Rossellana  of  England?  "  That  he 
had  many  enemies  in  the  theatrical  circles  of 
London  is  well  known,  and  with  some  he 
carried  on  a  bitter  personal  controversy.  Of 
this  fact  an  amusing  bit  of  evidence  is  con- 
tained in  a  volume  of  miscellaneous  pamphlets 
in  the  Historical  Society's  library.  Among 
the  pamphlets  is  an  Italian  one,  printed  with- 
out date  and  anonymously  in  Lisbon.  It 
is  an  indecent  attack  on  "  the  celebrated 
Lorenzo  Daponte,  who  after  having  been  Jew, 
169 


A  MOZART   CENTENARY 

Christian,  priest,  and  poet  in  Italy  and  Ger- 
many found  himself  to  be  a  layman,  husband, 
and  ass  in  London."  In  this  pamphlet  is  a 
sonnet  addressed  to  Da  Ponte,  in  which  by  a 
pun  his  name  is  associated  with  the  Ponte 
Oscura,  a  disreputable  quarter  of  Naples. 
Next  to  this  delectable  pamphlet  is  bound  a 
reply,  also  unsigned,  which  bandies  epithets 
with  the  alleged  author  of  the  former  with  a 
freedom  and  vigor  which  would  be  consid- 
ered startling  even  by  the  controversialists  of 
the  far  West.  This  is  the  way  in  which  the 
climax  is  reached :  Poeta  di  Priapo,  di 
Cotitto,  di  Petunda,  di  Stercucdo  e  di  tutti  le 
fogne,  ed  i  Lupinari  di  Londra.  Again  in  the 
"  Compendium,"  while  emphasizing  the  state- 
ment that  he  brought  nothing  with  him  from 
England  to  America  except"  some  books  and 
a  box  of  violin  strings,"  he  adds :  "  whatever 
may  be  said  by  the  illiterate  singer  of  Hay- 
market  or  the  Delilah  of  the  Neapolitan 
Eunuch."  The  indignant  protestation,  it  must 
be  confessed,  sounds  a  little  amusing  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  a  few  pages  later  he  says: 
"  A  glass  of  wine  given  with  affected  com- 
passion by  a  needy  sharper  on  board  the 
fatal  Nantucket  vessel  cost  me  $300  more." 
Evidently  he  carried  at  least  $300  away  with 
him  when,  "  pursued  by  twelve  bailiffs,"  he 
170 


DA   PONTE   IN   NEW  YORK 

fled  from  London  to  Gravesend,  and  there 
embarked  on  the  Nantucket  vessel,  which 
sailed  for  Philadelphia  on  March  26,  1805, 
and  reached  New  York  on  June  4. 

His  wife,  he  says,  had  been  in  America  on 
a  visit  to  her  father  not  a  year,  but  so  long 
that  "  about  the  middle  of  February  "  he  had 
sent  her  a  peremptory  injunction  to  return.1 
She  was  about  to  obey  him  when  he  arrived. 
His  wife  had  brought  over  $5,000  (remember 
Rossellana)  and  soon  got  $1,000  more  from 
her  sister  in  London.  With  this  money  Da 
Ponte  embarked  in  business.  Evidently  he 
was  not  cut  out  for  a  tradesman.  In  three 
months,  through  his  "  wonted  lenity  of 
temper,"  he  had  lost  $300;  then  the  fear  of 
yellow  fever  drove  him  to  Elizabethtown, 
N.  J.,  where  he  bought  a  house  and  lot  and 
continued  his  traffic  in  liquors,  tobacco, 

1  In  spite  of  Da  Ponte's  theatrical  protestation  that  his 
lips  had  never  spoken  an  untruth  (he  was  a  poet  and  much 
given  to  hyperbole),  investigation  of  his  career  discloses 
many  things  which  can  not  now  be  reconciled  with  his 
statements.  If  he  had  been  in  correspondence  with  his 
wife  sometime  before  he  commanded  her  to  return  to 
London  from  New  York  in  February,  1805,  as  he  says,  she 
certainly  must  have  been  here  in  1804;  yet  the  notices  of 
Lorenzo  L.  Da  Ponte  (son  of  the  poet  and  professor  of 
Italian  in  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York  for 
several  years  prior  to  his  death  in  1840),  official  and  other- 
wise, agree  in  saying  that  he  was  born  in  London  in  1805. 
171 


A  MOZART  CENTENARY 

drugs,  etc.  He  failed,  he  says,  because  his 
customers  did  n't  pay.  Here  is  his  woeful 
complaint:  "  I  was  sometimes  obliged,  rather 
than  lose  all,  to  take,  for  notes  due  long 
before,  lame  horses,  broken  carts,  disjointed 
chairs,  old  shoes,  rancid  butter,  watery  cider, 
rotten  eggs,  apples,  brooms,  turnips,  pota- 
toes ;  "  and  these  things  he  had  to  sell  at  a 
sacrifice  in  order  to  meet  the  demands  of 
"  creditors  without  mercy."  Plainly  Da 
Ponte  was  not  a  financier.  In  his  books 
those  who  owed  him  money  are  all  uncon- 
scionable scoundrels  and  cheats,  and  those 
to  whom  he  owes  money  are  all  merciless, 
grasping  skinflints  who  sold  him  bad  goods. 
His  New  Jersey  venture  lasted  a  year ;  then 
he  sold  out,  and  the  sheriff,  prompted  by  a 
peculiarly  wicked  creditor,  named  Dunham, 
seized  upon  his  household  effects.  He  re- 
turned to  New  York,  began  to  teach  Italian, 
and  entertained  his  first  class  with  a  sketch 
of  his  life,  from  which  the  above  drafts  have 
been  made,  and  which  included  a  financial 
showing  of  the  Jersey  business.  The  citizens 
of  Elizabethtown  owed  him  about  $800;  he 
owed  $400  in  New  Jersey;  he  had  $1,600, 
which  he  divided  among  his  New  York 
creditors,  but  it  was  "  not  enough  to  meet  all 
demands,"  nor  were  all  these  demands  paid 
172 


DA   PONTE   IN  NEW  YORK 

after  he  had  handed  over  to  his  creditors 
$3,450.  Da  Ponte  was  surely  ingenuous 
when  it  came  to  finances. 

Da  Ponte  now  entered  on  a  period  of  suc- 
cessful teaching  in  New  York.  His  name 
appears  for  the  first  time  in  Longworth's 
directory  for  iSo/.1  The  period  lasted  till 
1811,  and  was  distinguished  each  year  by  a 
change  of  residence ;  among  other  places,  he 
lived  at  No.  29  Partition-street,  in  the  Bowery, 
and  at  No.  247  Duane-street.  Having 
amassed  a  fortune  of  $4,000  he  again  em- 
barked in  business.  This  time  he  became  a 
distiller  in  Sunbury,  Penn.  He  stayed  from 
June  10,  1811,  till  August  14,  1818,  and  of 
course  was  more  dreadfully  ruined  than  ever 

1  If  it  is  true  that  three  movings  are  as  bad  as  a  fire, 
Da  Ponte's  local  peregrinations  might  be  cited  as  either 
cause  or  proof  of  his  poverty.  Investigation  of  the  direc- 
tories of  New  York  discovers  the  following  list  of  his 
dwelling  places:  1807,  No.  29  Partition-street;  1808,  the 
Bowery;  1810,  No.  247  Duane-street;  1819,  No.  54 
Chapel-street;  1820,  No.  17  Jay-street;  1821,  No.  343 
Greenwich-street;  1824,  No.  51  Hudson-street;  1825,  No. 
92  Hudson-street;  1826,  No.  206  Duane-street;  1827  and 
1828,  No.  390  Greenwich-street;  1829  to  1835,  No.  342 
Broadway,  with  the  bookstore  at  No.  336  (then,  as  now, 
the  numbers  were  in  the  vicinity  of  Catherine-lane) ;  1836 
and  1837,  No.  35  Dey-street;  1838,  No.  91  Spring-street, 
where  he  died.  The  directories  of  1811  and  1823  are 
missing  in  the  Trow  collection,  and  that  of  1809  is 
defective. 

173 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

before.  Again  he  was  the  only  sheep  in  a 
flock  of  wolves.  On  his  return  he  again 
gathered  his  pupils  around  him.  He  won 
the  friendship  of  no  less  powerful  an  advocate 
than  Clement  Clarke  Moore,  whom  scholars 
honor  as  the  pioneer  Hebrew  lexicographer 
of  the  United  States,  and  whom  children  love 
as  the  author  of"  'Twas  the  Night  before 
Christmas."  His  summers  he  spent  near 
noble  patrons,  the  Livingstons,  on  the  Hud- 
son; his  winters  in  town.  He  wrote  his 
memoirs  in  three  small  volumes,  and  pub- 
lished them  in  1823.  He  lectured  on  Italy, 
and  even  measured  his  pen  with  that  of 
Prescott,  who  had  ventured  to  criticise  Italian 
narrative  poetry  in  "  The  North  American 
Review."  Exactly  when  does  not  appear, 
but  it  seems  that  he  also  taught  "Aunt 
Sally,"  who  kept  a  boarding-house  in  Broome- 
street,  the  art  of  Italian  cookery,  and  culti- 
vated in  his  pupils  simultaneously  the  taste 
for  Petrarch  and  macaroni.  His  friend, 
Clement  C.  Moore,  was  a  trustee  of  Columbia 
College,  and  probably  through  his  advocacy 
Lorenzo  Da  Ponte  became  professor  of 
Italian  literature  in  Columbia  College,  then 
situated  at  the  foot  of  Park  Place,  near 
Broadway.  The  story  of  this  professorship 
can  be  told  in  a  few  extracts  from  the  minutes 
174 


DA   PONTE   IN   NEW  YORK 

of  the  Trustees  of  Columbia  College  and  a 
postscript. 

From  the  minutes  of  Columbia  College: 

May  2,  1825.  A  letter  from  Mr.  Da  Ponte  was 
received,  asking  permission  to  instruct  the  alumni 
of  the  College  in  the  Italian  language  and  to  make 
use  of  some  part  of  the  building  for  that  purpose. 
The  above  letter  was  referred  to  the  Standing 
Committee. 

June  6,  1825.  (At  this  meeting  the  report  of 
the  Standing  Committee  was  laid  on  the  table  for 
further  consideration.) 

September  5,  1825.  Resolved,  That  a  Profes- 
sorship of  Italian  Literature  be  established  in  this 
College,  but  that  the  Professor  be  not  considered 
one  of  the  Board  of  the  College,  nor  subject  to  the 
provisions  of  the  second  chapter  of  the  statutes. 

Resolved,  That  the  attendance  of  the  students 
upon  the  said  Professor  be  voluntary,  and  that  the 
hours  of  attendance  be  appointed  by  the  Professor, 
under  the  direction  of  the  President. 

Resolved,  That  Signore  Da  Ponte  be  and  is 
hereby  appointed  to  the  said  professorship,  and 
that  he  be  allowed  to  receive  from  the  students 
who  shall  attend  his  lectures  a  reasonable  compen- 
sation ;  but  that  no  salary  be  allowed  him  from  the 
College. 

December  5,   1825.     (Da    Ponte    offers  to  sell 
two   hundred  and  sixty-three  volumes  of  Italian 
175 


A  MOZART   CENTENARY 

works  to  the  college  for  $364.05.  Referred  to  a 
committee,  C.  C.  Moore,  chairman.) 

January  2,  1826.  (Favorable  report;  the  books 
are  bought  for  the  library.) 

January  5,  1829.  Ordered  that  $50  be  paid  to 
Signore  Da  Ponte  in  addition  to  what  he  has 
already  been  paid  for  making  the  catalogue  of  the 
College. 

November  3,  1829.  (Da  Ponte  offers  more 
books.) 

November  12,  1829.  (Thirty-three  volumes 
bought  of  Da  Ponte  for  $140.) 

November  30,  1829.  A  proposition  was  re- 
ceived through  the  President  from  Signore  Da 
Ponte,  offering  to  add  a  number  of  Italian  books 
to  the  College  Library  upon  condition  of  his  hav- 
ing a  certain  number  of  pupils  provided  him 
to  instruct  in  the  Italian  language.  Where- 
upon— • 

Resolved,  That  it  is  inexpedient  to  accept  of  the 
proposition  of  Signore  Da  Ponte. 

These  are  the  only  instances  in  which  Da 
Ponte's  name  appears  in  the  minutes  of 
Columbia  College.  From  the  volume  added 
to  his  memoirs  in  1830  the  meaning  of  the 
last  entry  may  be  learned.  He  was  a  pro- 
fessor without  pupils  or  salary.  His  propo- 
sition was  to  give  two  lessons  for  forty  weeks 
to  one  hundred  students,  each  to  pay  $15  for 
176 


DA   PONTE   IN   NEW   YORK 

the  eighty  lessons,  and  then  to  present  one 
thousand  volumes  to  the  College. 

o 

The  years  from  1807  to  1811  and  from 
1818  to  1826  were  evidently  the  only  happy 
ones  in  Da  Ponte's  American  life.  Some  of 
his  pupils  went  to  live  with  him  at  his  sum- 
mer home  to  continue  their  studies.  Among 
them  was  Henry  James  Anderson,  who  be- 
came professor  of  mathematics  and  astronomy 
in  Columbia  College  in  1825,  and  who  mar- 
ried Da  Ponte's  daughter.  Dr.  Anderson 
remained  professor  until  1843,  became  a  con- 
vert to  Romanism,  and  died  in  1875  a^ 
Lahore,  India,  whither  he  had  gone  on  a 
scientific  commission.  His  wife  died  in  1843 
in  Paris  while  returning  with  her  husband 
from  Rome.  She  is  buried  in  Pere  la  Chaise. 
Dr.  Anderson  was  but  once  married  and  left 
only  two  children,  Edward  Henry  and  Elbert 
Ellery;  the  latter  is  a  prominent  lawyer  of 
New  York  City,  and  an  active  Democratic 
politician. 

The  last  ten  years  of  Da  Ponte's  life  were 
both  brightened  and  clouded  by  efforts  to 
introduce  Italian  opera  in  America.  When 
Garcia  came  in  November,  1825,  with  an 
Italian  troupe  including  his  daughter,  after- 
ward Malibran,  Da  Ponte  was  among  his 
earliest  visitors.  The  story  of  their  meeting 
12  i 


A   MOZART  CENTENARY 

is  a  familiar  one.  Da  Ponte  introduced  him- 
self to  the  singer  as  the  author  of  "  Don 
Giovanni  "  ("  my  '  Don  Giovanni,'  "  he  was 
fond  of  saying),  and  Garcia,  clasping  him  in 
his  arms,  danced  about  the  room  like  a  child, 
singing  Fin  ch'  han  dal  vino.  Naturally 
"  Don  Giovanni "  was  given  in  the  first  sea- 
son, though  Da  Ponte  and  his  "  friends  and 
pupils  "  had  to  pay  an  extra  singer  in  order 
to  have  a  Don  Ottavio.  Later  Da  Ponte 
associated  himself  with  Rivafinoli  in  operatic 
management,  and  even  succeeded  in  persuad- 
ing some  wealthy  citizens  to  build  an  opera 
house  at  Church  and  Leonard-streets.  The 
operatic  ventures  were  disastrous.  He  wrote 
and  published  two  pamphlets  about  the  Mon- 
tressor  season  in  1832,  and  in  1835  appended 
to  a  complaint  of  his  recent  sufferings  a  let- 
ter in  which  he  denounced  Rivafinoli,  accused 
the  public  of  ingratitude  toward  himself,  and 
urged  that  the  theatre  be  leased  to  one 
Rocco.  Da  Ponte  went  with  all  his  troubles 
straight  to  the  public  through  the  medium  of 
the  printing  press,  and  it  makes  a  somewhat 
diverting  effect  in  spite  of  his  obvious  seri- 
ousness to  read  on  one  page  of  his  pamphlet 
an  almost  hysterical  prayer  to  the  stock- 
holders of  the  opera  house  to  listen  to  his 
advice  and  take  the  word  "  of  an  old  man 
178 


DA   PONTE   IN   NEW  YORK 

whose  lips  have  never  uttered  an  untruth," 
and  on  the  next  a  warning  to  his  debtors, 
threatening  to  sell  their  notes  at  public  auc- 
tion and  tell  the  "  circumstances  under  which 
they  were  offered  and  received  "  unless  they 
are  paid  before  a  given  day.  When  he 
records  his  failure  to  change  the  system  of 
instruction  at  Columbia  he  does  so  cheerfully 
enough.  He  tells  in  the  last  pages  of  his 
"  Memorie  "  that  he  had  now  opened  a  book- 
store in  front  of  which  he  could  see  all  day 
long  the  most  beautiful  women  in  the  world 
step  out  of  their  carriages.  They  were  bent 
on  the  purchase  of  candies  and  cakes  in  the 
adjoining  shop.  Then  he  tells  how  the 
temptation  had  seized  him  to  put  up  a  sign 
in  his  window :  "  Candies  and  Italian  cakes 
sold  here."  If  by  such  a  trick  somebody 
shall  be  tempted  into  his  store,  "  then,"  he 
says,  "  will  I  bring  forth  Petrarch,  or  some 
other  of  our  poets,  and  I  will  vouch  that  they 
are  the  sweetest  of  all  candies  for  those  who 
have  teeth  to  masticate  them."  But  he  did 
not  always  take  so  cheerful  a  view  of  life.  It 
is  plain  from  all  his  writings  that  he  consid- 
ered himself  not  appreciated  at  his  true  worth. 
He  thought  himself  a  genius,  and  since  the 
people  would  not  discover  that  fact  of  their 
own  volition  he  kept  asseverating  it  in  his 
179 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 
writings.     Toward  the  end  of  his  life  the  fact 

O 

that  he  was  in  danger  of  dying  neglected 
seems  to  have  weighed  greatly  on  his  mind. 
In  a  letter  printed  in  his  memoirs  a  friend, 
evidently  C.  C.  Moore,  takes  him  to  task  for 
it.  Says  the  letter  writer : 

It  seems  to  me  that  you  are  a  little  too  anxious 
in  regard  to  the  memory  that  you  wish  to  leave 
behind  you.  For  all  that  you  have  already  done 
for  the  love  of  the  Italian  language  and  literature 
the  name  of  Da  Ponte,  elarum  et  venerabile 
nomen,  will  be  kept  in  great  veneration  so  long  as 
there  remains  in  this  country  a  taste  for  elegant 
letters,  and  the  youth  of  both  sexes  will  look  back 
in  the  decline  of  life  to  the  hours  passed  in  pleas- 
ant and  instructive  conversation  with  their  illus- 
trious and  elegant  teacher  as  to  the  most  brilliant 
moments  of  their  existence.  This  is  enough.  Do 
not  seek,  like  Bonaparte,  to  conquer  for  yourself 
all  the  glory  of  the  world. 

A  few  more  extracts  from  the  publications 
of  his  latter  days  evince  the  same  spirit.  In 
a  letter  set  as  a  preface  to  a  pamphlet  which 
he  calls  "  Frottola  per  far  ridere,"  in  1835, 
he  says: 

Eighteen  months  are  passed  since  I  had  a  single 
pupil.     I,  the  creator  of  the  Italian  language  in 
America,  the  teacher  of  more  than  two  thousand 
180 


DA   PONTE   IN  NEW  YORK 

persons  whose  progress  astounded  Italy !  I,  the 
poet  of  Joseph  II.,  the  author  of  thirty-six  dramas  ; 
the  inspiration  of  Salieri,  of  Weighl,  of  Martini,  of 
Winter  and  MOZART  !  After  twenty-seven  years  of 
hard  labor  I  have  no  longer  a  pupil !  Nearly 
ninety  years  old,  I  have  no  more  bread  in 
America  ! 

In  a  similar  tone  he  writes  to  a  friend  in 
Italy :  "  If  fate  had  led  me  to  France  instead 
of  America  I  would  not  now  fear  that  my 
remains  might  become  food  for  the  dogs ;  I 
would  have  earned  enough  money  to  secure 
rest  for  my  old  body  in  the  grave  and  pre- 
serve my  fame  against  total  oblivion."  In 
1835,  too,  he  published  a  "  Storia  Ameri- 
cana, ossia  il  Lamento."  It  is  a  poet's  lament, 
a  portion  of  which  he  himself  translated, 
beginning: 

Yet  to  the  hand  which  has  those  treasures  given, 
Ye  have  refused  the  cymbals  and  the  lyre ; 
And  from  his  brow  the  laurel  crown  have  riven, 
Whose  name  has  set  the  proudest  stage  on  fire. 
Have  suffered  one  by  cursed  envy  driven, 
(One  who,  when  thousands  he  had  all  bereaved 
And  none  were  left,  his  very  self  deceived,) 
To  bar  to  him  the  temple  he  had  striven 
With  pain  and  toil  to  rear.     Permitted  rage 
To  seize  the  little  mercy  that  was  meant 
And  given  by  another,  to  assuage 
The  sorrows  of  a  life  so  nearly  spent, 
181 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

That  good  men  trembled,  as  with  taunting  scorn, 
(And  hate,  of  malice  and  of  envy  born,) 
By  ruthless  hands  that  old  man's  hair  was  torn. 
Nor  will  I  now  what  I  have  borne  declare, 
My  bitter  wrongs,  the  horrors  of  my  fate, 
Through  life  those  wrongs  and  horrors  will  I  bear. 
My  death,  what  now  I  speak  not,  shall  relate. 
They  shall  declare  who  love  the  sacred  NINE, 
To  whom  I  consecrate  my  heart  and  song, 
They  shall  declare  that  sorrows  have  been  mine, 
And  pain  and  silent  suffering  and  wrong  — 
For  this  heaven's  light  is  still  to  me  divine, 
Nor  will  I  at  the  ills  I  bear  repine. 
Oh  !  why  does  reverence  the  right  deny 
To  speak  the  names  that  struggle  in  my  breast? 
Those  cherished  names  whose  mem'ry  can  not  die 
Until  this  beating  bosom  is  at  rest. 
Those  names  alone  have  had  the  power  to  dry 
The  struggling  tear,  and  check  the  rising  sigh. 
When  in  the  garden,  beautiful  and  fair, 
The  jasmine  blossomed,  planted  by  my  care, 
The  vi'let,  the  narcissus,  and  the  rose, 
The  lily,  type  of  virtue  and  repose, 
The  stately  tulip  and  the  fleur-de-lis, 
Adding  their  beauty  to  the  scenery, 
While  flowers  of  fairest  and  of  richest  hue, 
Upon  the  air  their  sweetest  perfume  threw  — 
Spring  into  freshened  life  at  my  command, 
Planted  and  raised  and  cultured  by  my  hand. 
When  to  the  marsh-born  magpie  and  the  crow, 
That  garden's  gates  were  ope'd  but  shut  to  me, 
Those  names  I  ioved  sustained  me  in  my  woe, 
Checked  my  despair  and  soothed  my  misery. 
For  them  I  suffered  that  dogs,  wolves,  and  all 
The  beasts  of  prey  upon  my  flesh  should  fall, 
182 


DA   PONTE   IN   NEW  YORK 

Drink  the  warm  current  from  my  bleeding  heart, 

And  glutted,  deaf  to  all  my  cries,  depart. 

For  this  I  took  and  nurtured  in  my  breast 

A  ravenous  beast,  more  fierce  than  all  the  rest, 

In  form  a  dove,  but  of  his  plumage  shorn 

A  dove  he  came  at  earliest  dawn  of  morn  ; 

I  found  him  plumage  —  mark  the  change  at  night, 

A  serpent  writhes,  discovered  to  my  sight, 

Sucks  the  heart's  fountain  to  the  very  lees, 

Contemns,  betrays,  traduces  me  and  flees. 

I  quote  these  lines  merely  for  the  curious 
interest  which  they  possess  as  a  specimen  of 
the  old  poet's  English  versification,  and  as  an 
evidence  of  the  frame  of  mind  in  which  he 
kept  himself  in  his  last  years.  In  the  English 
preface  to  the  poem  he  relates  that  he  had 
determined  to  return  to  Italy  to  die,  when 
dissuaded  by  the  receipt  of  a  letter  from  an 
admiring  benefactor,  inclosing  fifty  dollars. 
He  concludes  as  follows: 

I  remain.  I  will  try  to  be  known  through  the 
testimony  of  persons  worthy  of  belief.  It  is  my 
intention  to  publish  fifty  letters  from  distinguished 
persons  in  Europe.  They  are  all  precious  to  me 
for  their  contents  and  the  names  of  those  who 
wrote  them ;  but  the  name  of  the  benevolent 
AMERICAN  DONOR  is,  to  me,  the  gem  of  the  collec- 
tion, both  from  the  moment  in  which  it  was 
written,  and  all  it  says.  One  such  citizen  ennobles 
any  place.  New  York  may  boast  of  many  such  — 
183 


A  MOZART   CENTENARY 

with  her  will  I  leave  my  ashes,  as  I  have  given  to 
her  thirty  years  of  my  life.  Perhaps  those  ashes 
will  receive,  even  from  the  ill-disposed  and  the 
ungrateful,  Vano  conforto  di  tardi  sospiri. 

Da  Ponte  died  of  old  age  on  August  17,  \ 
1838,  at  9  P.  M.,  at  his  home,  No.  91  Spring-  ) 
street.  Dr.  J.  W.  Francis  attended  him,  and 
to  him  the  poet  a  day  before  his  death,  his 
leading  passion  inextinguishable,  addressed  a 
sonnet.  Allegri's  "  Miserere  "  was  sung  at  his 
funeral  and,  say  eye-witnesses,  he  was  buried 
"  in  the  Roman  cemetery  in  Second-avenue." 
Between  Second-avenue  and  First  at  that 
time  there  were  no  buildings.  Gulian  C. 
Verplanck  and  Dr.  Macneven  were  among 
his  pall-bearers.  The  Italians  of  the  city 
resolved  to  rear  a  monument  over  his  grave, 
but  never  did  so,  and  the  place  of  his  burial 
is  unmarked  and  unknown,  like  the  grave  of 
MozarL1 

1  The  death  notice  in  "  The  Evening  Post,"  of  August 
18,  1838,  announces  the  funeral  of  Da  Ponte  as  to  take 
place  "to-morrow  afternoon  at  five  o'clock  from  his  late 
dwelling-house,  No.  91  Spring-street."  As  a  matter  of  fact 
the  funeral  took  place  in  the  Cathedral  at  twelve  o'clock  of 
the  day  after  the  one  set  in  the  advertisement.  It  is  pro- 
bable that  the  friends  of  the  dead  man,  desiring  to  show 
him  some  honors,  changed  the  first  plans  of  the  family. 
Tuckerman  says :  "  The  obsequies  of  Da  Ponte  were  im- 
pressive The  funeral  took  place  at  noon  of  the  2oth  of 
184 


DA   PONTE   IN   NEW  YORK 

There  arises  naturally  a  curiosity  as  to  Da 
Ponte's  personal  appearance.  I  have  seen 
two  portraits,  one  an  oil  painting  in  the 

August,  1838.  Allegri's  Miserere  was  performed  over  his 
remains  at  the  Cathedral ;  the  pall-bearers  were  his 
countryman,  Maroncelli,  the  companion  of  Pellico's  memo- 
rable imprisonment  at  Spielberg;  his  old  friend,  Clement 
C.  Moore,  and  two  eminent  citizens  —  the  Hon.  Gulian  C. 
Verplanck  and  Dr.  Macneven ;  on  the  coffin  was  a  laurel 
wreath,  and  before  it,  on  the  way  from  the  church  to  the 
Roman  cemetery  in  Second-avenue  (sic.  Mr.  Ward  says 
simply  '  to  the  Roman  cemetery  '),  whither  it  was  borne  — 
followed  by  a  long  train  of  mourners  led  by  the  officiating 
priests  and  the  attendant  physician — was  carried  a  banner, 
and  on  its  black  ground  was  this  inscription: 

Laurentius  Daponte.  Italia.  Natus.  Litterarum.  Rei- 
publua.  et  Musis.  Dilectissimus.  Patria.  et  conciorum. 
Amantissimus.  Christiana.  Fidei.  Cultor.  Adsiduus. 
In  Pace,  et  Consolatione.  Lustrorum.  XVII.  Die  Aug- 
usti.  MDCCCXXXIII.  XC  Anno.  ^Etatis.  SUCK. 
Amplexu.  Domini.  Ascendit. 

A  private  letter  from  Mr.  E.  Ellery  Anderson  says :  "  I 
can  not  inform  you  as  to  his  place  of  burial.  He  died  during 
an  absence  of  several  months  of  my  father  from  the  city. 
Some  Italian  societies,  I  am  informed,  took  charge  of  the 
ceremonies.  He  was  buried  in  the  cemetery  near  Eleventh- 
street  and  Second-avenue.  About  twenty  years  since  my 
father  received  a  communication  from  the  authorities  of 
Ceneda,  his  native  village  near  Venice,  asking  information 
as  to  where  he  was  buried.  I  spent  several  days  in  inves- 
tigating the  matter,  but  was  unable  to  find  any  trace  of 
him.  My  judgment  is  that  his  remains  were  placed  tem- 
porarily in  some  friend's  vault,  with  the  intention  of  erect- 
ing a  formal  monument  at  a  later  period,  and  that  this 
matter  has  been  overlooked  or  forgotten  until  all  traces  of 
the  poet's  remains  have  been  lost." 


A   MOZART   CENTENARY 

library  of  Columbia  College,  the  other  a  steel 
engraving  put  as  a  frontispiece  in  the 
"  Frottola  per  far  ridere,"  of  which  mention 
has  been  made.  In  the  painting  Da  Ponte 
sits  at  a  writing-table  with  a  pen  in  his  right 
hand  and  the  left  clasping  the  top  of  a  large 
book  which  rests  on  his  knee.  The  brow  is 
a  noble  one,  but  the  face  runs  down  to  a 
rather  pointed  chin.  As  a  whole  the  cast  of 
countenance  is  decidedly  more  Hebraic  than 
the  other  portrait,  which,  of  course,  was 
sanctioned  by  the  original  or  it  would  not 
have  appeared  in  one  of  his  books.  The 
latter,  which  was  copied  in  the  "  New  York 
Mirror  "  to  illustrate  an  article  on  Da  Ponte'-s 
death,  written  by  Samuel  Ward,  is,  however, 
in  better  accord  with  the  descriptions  to  be 
found  in  local  literature.  In  "  Old  New 
York,"  published  in  1858,  Dr.  John  W, 
Francis,  who  attended  the  old  poet  on  his 
death-bed,  speaks  of  him  as  "  the  stately 
nonagenarian,  whose  white  locks  so  richly 
ornamented  his  classical  front  and  his  grace- 
ful and  elegant  person."  Mr.  Tuckerman, 
who  seems  also  to  have  been  acquainted  with 
Da  Ponte,  in  the  article  published  years  ago 
in  "  Putnam's  Magazine "  describes  him 
thus :  "  At  the  age  of  ninety  Lorenzo  Da- 
ponte  was  still  a  fine-looking  man;  he  had 
1 86 


DA  PONTE   IN   NEW  YORK 

the  head  of  a  Roman ;  his  countenance 
beamed  with  intelligence  and  vivacity;  his 
hair  was  abundant  and  fell  luxuriantly  round 
his  neck,  and  his  manners  combined  dignity 
and  urbanity  to  a  rare  degree." 

In  connection  with  these  descriptions  it  is 
interesting  to  read  what  Michael  Kelly  (the 
Irish  singer  who  sang  at  the  first  performance 
of  "  Le  Nozze  di  Figaro  "  in  Prague,  and 
who  caricatured  Da  Ponte  in  one  of  his  own 
operas  in  Vienna)  says  in  his  "  Reminis- 
cences: " 

My  friend,  the  poet,  had  a  remarkably  awkward 
gait,  a  habit  of  throwing  himself  (as  he  thought) 
into  a  graceful  attitude  by  putting  his  stick  behind 
his  back  and  leaning  on  it;  he  had  also  a  very 
peculiar,  rather  dandyish  way  of  dressing ;  for,  in 
sooth,  the  abb£  stood  mighty  well  with  himself  and 
had  the  character  of  a  consummate  coxcomb ;  he 
had  also  a  strong  lisp  and  broad  Venetian  dialect. 


187 


BEETHOVEN   AND    HIS 
BIOGRAPHER 


ALEXANDER   WHEELOCK 
THAYER 

WHEN  Alexander  Wheelock  Thayer  died  on 
July  15,  1897,  in  Trieste,  Austria,  America 
lost  a  citizen  who  had  brought  her  more 
renown  in  the  world  of  music  than  any  of 
her  composers,  performers  or  singers ;  yet  he 
wrote  no  music  and  had  only  an  amateur's 
knowledge  of  the  art.  He  won  his  emi- 
nence by  writing  a  biography  of  Beethoven 
which  is  recognized  the  world  over  as  the 
court  of  last  resort  on  all  questions  of 
fact  concerning  the  great  musician  who 
linked  together  the  eighteenth  and  nine- 
teenth centuries.  He  gave  to  that  work 
nearly  fifty  years  of  his  life,  yet  left  it 
uncompleted,  to  the  infinite  regret  of  all 
serious  students  of  musical  history.  Three 
volumes  were  printed,  in  German  transla- 
tion, which  brought  the  story  of  Beethoven's 
life  down  to  the  end  of  the  year  1816.  Eigh- 
teen years  elapsed  between  the  publication 
of  Volume  III  and  Mr.  Thayer's  death,  but 
191 


BEETHOVEN 

so  brain-weary  had  he  become  from  the 
labor  of  gathering,  sifting  and  presenting 
the  vast  material  contained  in  the  work  that 
the  last  ten  years  of  his  life  saw  no  progress 
made  in  his  magnum  opus.  So  far  as  it 
goes,  however,  "  Ludwig  van  Beethoven's 
Leben  "  is  the  final  and  authoritative  account 
of  the  composer's  life  and  labors.  For  the 
first  time  it  places  the  history  of  Beethoven's 
career  on  a  solid  basis  of  fact,  rectifying  the 
great  mass  of  fable  and  error  that  had  grown 
up  around  it  from  the  negligence  and  par- 
tisan bias  of  the  composer's  friends  and 
earlier  biographers,  and  bringing  to  light  a 
great  body  of  new  and  convincing  data. 
Thayer's  method  was  that  of  the  modern 
German  school  of  careful  and  exhaustive 
research  as  exemplified  in  Jahn's  biography 
of  Mozart,  and  Spitta's  of  Bach.  Unlike 
those  works,  however,  Thayer's  "  Beethoven" 
attempts  no  analysis  or  estimate  of  its  sub- 
ject's compositions.  It  is  a  study  of  the 
man,  not  of  his  music. 

Mr.  Thayer  was  born  at  South  Natick, 
Mass.,  on  October  22,  1817.  He  was  grad- 
uated from  Harvard  College  in  1843,  and 
immediately  went  to  work  in  the  College 
library.  While  thus  employed  he  formed 
the  resolve  the  execution  of  which  occupied 
192 


ALEXANDER  W.  THAYER 

him  for  the  rest  of   his    life.     He  went  to 
Germany,  where  he  lived  for  two  years,  col- 
lecting materials,  studying  the  German  lan- 
guage and  otherwise  fitting  himself  for  the 
task  which  he  had  set  himself.     When  he 
came  back  to  the  United  States  in  1852  he 
became  a  member  of  the  staff  of  the  "  New 
York  Tribune"  newspaper;   but   music  en- 
grossed his  attention,  his  health  gave  way, 
and  he  abandoned  the  profession  of  journal- 
ism, though  he  did  not  cease  to  write  articles 
for  newspapers  and  other  journals,  until  he 
could  write  no  more.     In  1854  he  went  back 
to  Europe,  and  saving  two  years  which  he 
spent    in    Boston,  from    1856  to   1858,  that 
country  was  his  abiding-place  till  his  death. 
The  Boston  interim  brought  him  into  close 
association    with    Lowell    Mason,   who   em- 
ployed   him  to   catalogue   his    library.      In 
1858,  largely  supported  by  funds  contributed 
by  Dr.  Mason  and  Mrs.  Mehitabel  Adams  of 
Cambridge,  Mr.  Thayer  returned  to  Europe. 
In  1862  he  entered  the  service  of  the  United 
States  Legation  at  Vienna  and  three  years 
later  he  was  appointed  United  States  Con- 
sul at  Trieste  by  President  Lincoln  at  the 
request  of  Mr.  Motley  and  Senators  Sumner 
and  Wilson.     He  remained  in  office  until 
October  ist,  1882,  when  President  Cleveland 
'3  193 


BEETHOVEN 

removed  him  to  make  room  for  a  man  be- 
longing to  his  political  party.  All  the  time 
that  he  could  spare  from  his  official  duties 
was  given  to  travels  undertaken  to  gather 
material  for  the  Beethoven  biography. 

The  first  fruits  of  Mr.  Thayer's  special 
study  were  given  to  the  world  in  his  "  Chro- 
nologisches  Verzeichniss  der  Werke  Ludwig 
van  Beethoven's,"  published  in  Berlin  in 
1865.  The  next  year  the  first  volume  of  the 
biography  appeared.  This,  like  the  suc- 
ceeding volumes  (the  second  published  in 
1872,  the  third  in  1879),  was  written  in  Eng- 
lish and  translated  into  German  by  Dr.  Her- 
mann Deiters  of  Bonn,  to  whom,  after  Mr. 
Thayer's  death,  his  executor,  Jabez  Fox, 
Esq.,  entrusted  the  task  of  completing  the 
work  with  the  aid  of  the  material  gathered 
together  by  the  great  biographer.  Since  Dr. 
Burney  made  his  memorable  tours  through 
Germany,  France  and  Italy  to  gather  mate- 
rial for  his  "General  History  of  Music"  it 
is  doubtful  if  any  investigator  ever  made 
such  exhaustive  and  painstaking  researches 
as  Mr.  Thayer.  Like  Dr.  Burney,  he  be- 
lieved that  intelligence  as  well  as  mer- 
chandise capable  of  adulteration  is  seldom 
genuine  after  passing  through  many  hands, 
and  that  it  is  always  best  to  seek  for  infor- 
194 


ALEXANDER   W.  THAYER 

mation  at  its  source.     He  therefore  sought 
out   all    of    Beethoven's  friends   who  were 
living  in  the  sixth  and  seventh  decades  of 
this    century,    noted    down    their    recollec- 
tions of  important  occurrences  in  connection 
with  the  composer,  and  a  multitude  of  inci- 
dents which  might   enable   him   the   better 
to  straighten   out   the  thread   of    that   life- 
story  which  had  been  sadly  tangled  by  the 
romancers  who,   under  one  pretence  or  an- 
other, were  first  in  the  field  with  books  on 
Beethoven.      This,    however,   was   probably 
the   least   valuable   of   Thayer's    labors;    it 
did  not  compare  with  his  researches  in  old 
archives,  court  records,  etc. ,  for  the  evidence, 
which,  as  he  has  presented  it,  leaves  scarcely 
an  important  incident  in  Beethoven's  life  in 
doubt,  but  it  resulted  in  the  accumulation  of 
a  most  interesting  body  of  anecdote  and  de- 
scription.     To  hear  this  from   the  lips  of 
witnesses  who  are  speaking  from  personal 
knowledge  is  to  be  brought  nearer  to  the  per- 
sonality of  the  great  genius  than  could  be 
done  by  any  amount  of  ordinary  biographical 
writing;  and  so  I  give  the  following  extracts 
from  Mr.  Thayer's  notebooks  (kindly  placed 
at  my  disposal  by  Mrs.  Fox,  a  niece  of  the 
biographer   and    his   heir)  without    further 
change    than    a    translation    into    English 
195 


BEETHOVEN 

of    the    passages    which    occur   in    foreign 
languages : 

January  2,  1860  —  I  visited  General  Garten- 
Direktor  Peter  Lenne",  at  Potsdam,  a  native  of 
Bonn.  He  told  me  (A.  W.  T.)  that  in  1812  he 
went  to  Vienna  and  took  a  letter  from  his  father 
to  B.,  also  one  from  Father  Ries.  As  B.  heard 
the  Bonn  dialect  he  exclaimed,  "  I  can  understand 
you.  You  speak  Bonnian  (Bonniscfi).  You  must 
be  my  guest  every  Sunday  !  " 

"  Father  Ries "  was  the  father  of  Ferdi- 
nand Ries,  Beethoven's  pupil,  and,  with 
Dr.  F.  G.  Wegeler,  author  of  the  "Biog- 
raphische  Notizen  u'ber  Ludwig  van  Bee- 
thoven," published  in  1838. 

August  29,  1859  —  I  met  Musikdirektor  Krenn 
on  the  Glacis,  and  he  related  me  the  two  follow- 
ing anecdotes  : 

Hofrath  Kiiffner  told  him  (Krenn)  that  he  once 
lived  with  Beethoven  in  Heiligenstadt,  and  that 
they  were  in  the  habit  evenings  of  going  down  to 
Ntissdorf  to  eat  a  fish  supper  in  the  Gasthaus 
"  Zur  Rose."  One  evening,  when  B.  was  in  a 
good  humor,  Kiiffner  began  : 

K.  — "  Tell  me  frankly  which  is  your  favorite 
among  your  symphonies  ?  " 

B.  (in  great  good  humor)  —  "  Eh  !  Eh  !  The 
<  Eroica.' " 

196 


ALEXANDER  W.   THAYER 

K.  —  "I  should  have  guessed  the  C  minor." 

B.  —  "  No ;  the  «  Eroica.'  " 

Krenn  was  a  pupil  of  Ignatz  v.  Seyfried,  and  at 
one  time  he  was  studying  B.'s  seventh  symphony 
with  his  master,  and  when  they  came  to  the  place 
in  the  finale  where  the  drums  are  out  of  harmony, 
Seyfried  told  this  anecdote  : 

Years  before  they  were  rehearsing  that  work 
with  his  orchestra.  When  they  came  to  this  place 
he  thought  the  parts  were  copied  out  incorrectly, 
but  on  referring  to  the  score  it  was  the  same  there. 
As  carefully  as  possible  he  said  to  Beethoven: 
"  Dear  friend,  there  seems  to  be  an  error  here ; 
the  kettledrums  are  not  in  tune."  Beethoven 
flared  up  at  once  and  exclaimed :  "  It  is  not  in- 
tended that  they  shall  be."  Now,  that  Seyfried 
had  learned  to  appreciate  the  poetic  idea  which 
underlies  the  music,  he  told  Krenn,  "  Now  I  com- 
prehend that  the  drums  ought  not  to  be  in  tune." 

The  passage  in  the  finale  of  the  seventh  \ 
symphony  referred  to  is  probably  the  stub- 
born and  dissonant  roll  on  A  near  the  close 
of  the  first  portion  of  the  movement. 

The  old  actor  Hopp  told  me  to-day,  October 
28,  1859,  that  at  the  opening  of  the  Josephstadt 
Theatre  he  was  still  in  Baden,  but  that  a  few 
days  later  he  came  to  Vienna,  November  4,  1822. 
Hensler  gave  a  dinner  in  the  Garderobeofthe  J.S. 
197 


BEETHOVEN 

Theatre  at  3  P.  M.,  it  being  Hensler's  Namenstag, 
Beethoven,  Glaser,  Bauerle,  Gleich,  Meisel,  Hopp 
and  others  being  present.  Beethoven  had  a  seat 
directly  under  a  musical  clock.  Glaser  told  Reubl, 
who  provided  the  entertainment,  to  set  the  clock 
to  the  overture  to  "  Fidelio "  and  then  wrote 
Beethoven  to  listen,  as  he  would  soon  hear  it. 
Beethoven  listened  and  then  said :  "  It  plays 
it  better  than  the  orchestra  in  the  Karnthnerthor." 

Rust's  Anecdote  —  Wilhelm  Rust  used  to  relate 
that  in  1809  he  was  in  a  coffee-house  in  Vienna  and 
Beethoven  was  there  also.  A  French  officer  hap- 
pening to  pass,  B.  doubled  up  his  fist  and  ex- 
claimed :  "  If  I,  as  a  general,  knew  as  much  about 
strategy  as  I  know  about  counterpoint  as  a  com- 
poser, I  'd  cut  out  some  work  for  you  fellows  ! " 
This  anecdote  was  told  me  by  Wilhelm  Rust,  the 
nephew  of  the  above. 

April  29,  1860  —  At  Link's,  where  I  met 
Hozalka.  He  speaks  very  highly  of  Schindler 
and  of  S.'s  disinterested  fidelity  to  Beethoven. 
Hozalka  says  that  in  i82o-'2i,  as  near  as  he  can 
recollect,  the  wife  of  a  Major  Baumgarten  took 
boy  boarders  in  the  house  then  standing  where 
the  Musikverein's  Saal  now  is,  and  that  Beethoven's 
nephew  was  placed  with  her.  Her  sister,  Baronin 
Born,  lived  with  her.  One  evening  he,  Hozalka, 
then  a  young  man,  called  there  and  found  only 
Baronin  Born  at  home.  Soon  another  caller  came 
198 


ALEXANDER  W.   THAYER 

and  stayed  to  tea.  It  was  Beethoven.  Among 
other  topics  Mozart  came  on  the  tapis,  and  the 
Born  asked  Beethoven  (in  writing,  of  course) 
which  of  Mozart's  operas  he  thought  most  of. 
"  Die  Zauberflote,"  said  Beethoven,  and,  suddenly 
clasping  his  hands  and  throwing  up  his  eyes,  ex- 
claimed, "  Oh,  Mozart !  " 

As  Hozalka  had,  as  it  was  the  fashion  to  do, 
always  considered  "  Don  Juan  "  as  the  greatest, 
this  opinion  by  Beethoven  made  a  very  deep  im- 
pression upon  him. 

At  Artaria's  I  found  two  of  the  daily  records  of 
expense  kept  by  Beethoven's  housekeeper.  They 
consist  of  two  or  three  sheets  of  foolscap  paper 
^  doubled  together  lengthwise  and  stitched.  I  had 
the  curiosity  to  draw  off  the  wine  account  as  it  is 
scattered  among  the  items.  Found  it  to  be  as 
follows  : 

Fl.  x 

July    7  —  Wine  cost 9  20  W.  W. 

"     12  —  White  wine      .  •   .     .     .     4  15 

"     "  — Red        "        ....     5  25 

"    16  — White     "        ....     3  20 

"     "  — Red        "        ....     9  20 

"    23  —  Red        "  6  Mass,  3  Seidel  4  43^ 

«     «  — White      "  2     "      i      "      4  30 

«    28  —  Wine 14 

August  6,  7  — Red  wine,  7^  Mass     5  15 

«       «     — White  "   ....     2  22 
199 


BEETHOVEN 

October  28 — Wine 2     30 

"        31-      " 6     40 

November  2  —  Wine       ....     3     30 

"  14  —  "  ....  2 
N.  B.  — A  florin  (Fl.)  or  gulden  W.  W.  (Wiener 
Wahrung)  was  near  enough  to  be  called  a  franc  — 
about  20  or  2 1  cents  American  money.  One  English 
gallon  equals  3.9680  Prussian  quarts ;  one  Austrian 
Mass  equals  1.2359  Prussian  quarts;  one  Austrian 
Mass  equals  1.205  English  quarts. 

May  24,  1860,  I  called  on  Salis  in  the  Nagler 
Gasse,  Wien.  His  wife  was  daughter  of  the 
violoncellist  Willmann,  and  therefore  niece  of  the 
Willmann  —  afterward  Galvani  —  singer  at  Bonn, 
i790-'93.  (See  Gerber's  Lexicon.)  She  told  me 
that  her  father  had  often  told  her  that  Beethoven 
was  visibly  in  love  with  the  beautiful  songstress 
and  offered  his  hand ;  but  she  refused  him,  he 
being  "ugly  and  half  crazy." 

May  25,  1860  —  Herr  Salis  took  me  to  Hof- 
sekretar  Mahler,  an  old  man,  eighty-two  years  of 
age,  born  at  Coblentz.  He  came  to  Vienna  in 
1803.  Breuning  introduced  him  to  Beethoven. 
The  place  of  introduction  was  in  the  Theater  an 
der  Wien,  where  Beethoven  then  had  rooms.  It 
was  probably  during  the  winter  i8o3-'o4-  They 
found  Beethoven  at  work  finishing  the  "  Eroica." 
Wishing  to  hear  him  play,  he  sat  down  and  played 
the  Finale  —  theme,  variations  and  fugue  —  and 
200 


ALEXANDER  W.   THAYER 

when  it  was  concluded,  instead  of  leaving  off,  he 
continued  in  a  free  fantasia  for  two  hours,  during 
all  which  time,  said  Mahler,  himself  a  composer, 
there  was  not  a  phrase  (Takt,  the  word  he  used) 
which  was  faulty  or  which  did  not  sound  original. 

May  28  —  I  called  again  on  Mahler  and  ques- 
tioned him  as  to  the  above,  and  find  I  have  re- 
ported correctly.  One  thing,  he  says,  particularly 
attracted  his  attention,  and  that  was  that  he 
played  with  his  hands  so  very  still.  Wonderful 
as  was  his  execution,  there  was  no  tossing  up  and 
about  of  his  hands,  but  they  seemed  to  glide  right 
and  left  over  the  keys,  the  fingers  doing  the 
work. 

He  told  me  that  at  the  grand  rehearsal  of 
"  Fidelio  "  the  third  fagott  was  absent,  that  Beetho- 
ven fussed  and  fidgeted  about  it,  but  that  Lobko- 
witz  treated  the  matter  lightly  —  two  fagotts  were 
there  and  a  third  could  make  little  difference, 
etc.  Whereat  B.  was  enraged,  and  after  the 
rehearsal,  on  his  way  to  his  lodgings  in  the  city, 
as  he  passed  over  the  Lobkowitz-Platz,  he  could 
not  resist  going  to  the  great  door  and  calling  out 
Lobkowitzcher  Esel !  ("  Lobkowitzian  ass.") 

Upon  inquiring  what  portrait  Beethoven  refers 
to  in  the  letter  to  Mahler  which  I  copied  the 
other  day,  Mahler  told  me  it  was  a  picture  which 
he  painted  soon  after  coming  to  Vienna,  in  which 
Beethoven  is  given  nearly  at  full  length,  left  hand 
resting  on  a  lyre,  right  hand  extended  as  if  in  a 
201 


BEETHOVEN 

moment  of  musical  enthusiasm  he  was  beating  time. 
In  the  background  a  temple  of  Apollo.  Oh  !  if 
he  could  only  know  what  had  become  of  that  pic- 
ture !  "  Why,"  said  I,  "  it  is  now  hanging  up  in 
Widow  Carl  van  Beethoven's  room  in  the  Joseph- 
stadt,  and  I  have  a  copy  of  it !  "  So  it  appears 
that  the  picture  which  Luib  gave  me  is  a  copy  of 
one  by  Mahler. 

Prince  Josef  Franz  Maximilian  Lobkowitz 
was  one  of  the  first  and  foremost  of  Bee- 
thoven's Viennese  friends.  He  was  two  years 
younger  than  the  composer,  and  an  intimacy 
sprang  up  between  the  two  men  (Lobkowitz 
being  an  admirable  amateur,  playing  the  vio- 
lin and  violoncello  and  singing  like  an  artist) 
very  soon  after  Beethoven  came  to  Vienna  in 
1792.  His  name  appears  in  the  dedications 
of  the  third,  fifth  and  sixth  symphonies, 
besides  a  number  of  other  smaller  but  yet 
important  works.  He  was  one  of  the  con- 
tributors to  Beethoven's  annuity,  and  died  in 
1816.  Sir  George  Grove  tells  the  story  in  his 
article  on  Beethoven  in  the  "  Dictionary  of 
Music  and  Musicians,"  on  the  authority  of 
Thayer's  biography  (Vol.  IT,  p.  288).  The 
portrait  painted  by  Mahler  was  until  five 
years  ago  in  the  possession  of  the  widow  of 
Beethoven's  nephew,  Carl  van  Beethoven,  [ 

202 


ALEXANDER  W.   THAYER 

whose  conduct  when  young  embittered  the 
last  years  of  the  master's  life.  Thayer's  copy 
is  in  oil,  and  was  exhibited  at  the  opening  of 
the  Bonn  Beethoven-Haus  Museum  in  1890. 
The  Thayer  copy  is  now  the  property  of  Mrs. 
Jabez  Fox,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

June  5,  1860,  I  was  in  Gratz  and  saw  Hiitten- 
brenner  (Anselm),  who  gave  me  the  following 
particulars : 

Some  ten  years  before  Beethoven's  death  A. 
H.,  then  a  young  man,  went  to  Vienna  to  spend 
a  few  years.  He  was  an  amateur  musician  and 
composer,  and  a  Beethoven  enthusiast,  as  were  so 
many  Gratz  people.  Dr.  Joseph  Eppinger  intro- 
duced him  to  Beethoven,  who,  he  thinks,  was 
living  at  the  time  in  a  narrow  street  in  the  city 
—  here  his  memory  is  not  distinct.  He  remem- 
bers distinctly,  however,  the  impression  made 
upon  him  by  the  room  —  shirts,  boots  and  shoes, 
books,  music,  all  piled  upon  or  scattered  about 
the  floor.  As  Eppinger  introduced  him  Beethoven 
said,  Ich  bin  nicht  werth  dass  Sie  mich  besuchen 
("I  am  not  worth  a  visit  from  you"),  and  his 
manner  proved  that  this  was  spoken  from  modesty. 

Huttenbrenner  remembers  also  that  it  used  to 
be  said  in  Vienna  in  those  days  that  what  gave 
Beethoven  his  first  reputation  in  Vienna  was  his 
superb  playing  of  Bach's  "  Wohltemperirtes  Cla- 
vier." As  a  specimen  of  his  composition  he  once 
203 


BEETHOVEN 

took  his  overture  to  Schiller's  "  Robbers  "  to  B., 
who  looked  it  through  and  then  clapped  him 
heartily  upon  the  shoulder  in  proof  of  his  appro- 
bation. He  also  confirms  what  I  have  so  often 
heard  of  Beethoven's  loud,  hearty  laughter. 

In  the  winter  of  1826-' 27  his  friends  wrote  him 
from  Vienna  that  if  he  wished  to  see  Beethoven 
again  alive  he  must  hurry  up  thither  from  Gratz. 
He  hastened  to  Vienna,  arriving  a  few  days  before 
Beethoven's  death.  Early  in  the  afternoon  of 
March  26  Hiittenbrenner  went  into  the  dying 
man's  room.  He  mentioned  as  persons  whom  he 
saw  there  Stephen  v.  Breuning  and  Gerhard, 
Schindler,  Telscher  and  Carl's  mother.  (This 
seems  to  be  a  mistake,  i.  e.,  if  Mrs.  v.  Beethoven 
is  right.)  Beethoven  had  then  long  been  sense- 
less. Telscher  began  to  draw  the  dying  face  of 
Beethoven.  This  grated  on  Breuning's  feelings, 
and  he  remonstrated  with  him,  and  he  put  up  his 
papers  and  left  (?).  Then  Breuning  and  Schin- 
dler left  to  go  out  to  Wahring  to  select  a  grave. 
(Just  after  five  —  I  got  this  from  Breuning  himself 
—  when  it  grew  dark  with  the  sudden  storm,  Ger- 
hard, who  had  been  standing  at  the  window,  ran 
home  to  his  teacher.)  Afterward  Gerhard  v.  B. 
went  home,  and  there  remained  in  the  room  only 
Hiittenbrenner  and  Mrs.  van  Beethoven.  The 
storm  passed  over,  covering  the  Glacis  with  snow 
and  sleet.  As  it  passed  away  a  flash  of  lightning 
lighted  up  everything.  This  was  followed  by  an 
204 


ALEXANDER  W.   THAYER 

awful  clap  of  thunder.  Hiittenbrenner  had  been 
sitting  on  the  side  of  the  bed  sustaining  Beetho- 
ven's head  —  holding  it  up  with  his  right  arm. 
His  breathing  was  already  very  much  impeded, 
and  he  had  been  for  hours  dying.  At  this  star- 
tling, awful  peal  of  thunder,  the  dying  man  sud- 
denly raised  his  head  from  Hiittenbrenner's  arm, 
stretched  out  his  own  right  arm  majestically  — 
"  like  a  General  giving  orders  to  an  army."  This 
was  but  for  an  instant;  the  arm  sunk  back;  he 
fell  back.  Beethoven  was  dead. 

Hiittenbrenner  says  when  Himmel  came  Bee- 
thoven said,  "  I  must  not  receive  him  in  bed," 
and  actually  got  up  and  put  on  a  dressing  gown  to 
receive  him  with  due  respect. 

Another  talk  with  Hiittenbrenner  —  It  seems 
that  Beethoven  was  at  his  last  gasp,  one  eye 
already  closed.  At  the  stroke  of  lightning  and  the 
thunder  peal  he  raised  his  arm  with  a  doubled-up 
fist ;  the  expression  of  his  eyes  and  face  was  that 
of  one  "  defying  death  "  —  a  look  of  defiance  and 
power  of  resistance. 

H.  must  have  had  his  arm  under  the  pillow. 
I  must  ask  him. 

I  did  ask  him;  he  had  his  arm  around  B.'s 
neck. 

Mrs.    v.    Beethoven    says    that   Carl's    mother 

could  not  have  been  present  at  Beethoven's  death, 

as  it  was  a  matter  of  complaint  with  her  that  no 

news  of  his  dying  condition  reached  her  until  after 

205 


BEETHOVEN 

all  was  over.  Dr.  Breuning  also  thinks  she  could 
not  have  been  there,  for  he  has  no  recollection  of 
ever  having  seen  either  of  the  sisters-in-law  of 
Beethoven. 

The  Mrs.  v.  Beethoven  referred  to  was  the 
widow  of  Nephew  Carl. 

June  23,  1860,  I  called  upon  Professor  Hofel, 
in  Salzburg.  He  related  the  following:  In  1820 
he  was  made  professor  of  drawing  at  Wiener 
Neustadt.  A  year  or  two  after  he  was  one  even- 
ing with  Eisner  (still  living  in  Vienna)  and  others 
of  his  colleagues ;  also  the  Police  Commissary  of 
W.  Neustadt,  in  the  garden  of  the  Wirthshaus 
"Zum  Schleifen,"  a  little  way  out  of  town.  It  was 
autumn  and  already  dark  when  a  constable  came 
out  and  said  to  the  commissary,  Herr  Commissar, 
wir  haben  Jemand  arretirt  welcher  uns  kein1  Ruh 
gibt.  Er  schreit  immer  dass  er  der  Beethoven  set. 
Er  ist  aber  ein  Lump,  hat  kein  Hut,  alter  Rock, 
etc.,  kein  Aufweis  wer  er  ist,  etc.  ("  Mr.  Com- 
missary, we  have  arrested  one  who  will  give  us  no 
peace.  He  keeps  on  yelling  that  he  is  Beethoven. 
But  he 's  a  ragamuffin ;  has  no  hat,  an  old  coat, 
etc.;  nothing  by  which  he  can  be  identified.") 

The  Commissar  ordered  that  the  man  be  kept 

in  arrest  until  morning,  dann  werden  wir  verhdren 

wer  er  ist,  etc.     ("  Then  we  will  examine  him  and 

learn  who  he  is.")     Next  morning  the  company 

206 


ALEXANDER  W.   THAYER 

was  very  anxious  to  know  how  the  affair  turned 
out,  and  the  Commissary  said  that  about  1 1  o'clock 
he  was  waked  up  by  a  policeman  with  the  inform- 
ation that  the  prisoner  gave  them  no  peace,  and 
demanded  that  Herzog,  Musikdirektor  in  Wiener 
Neustadt,  be  called  to  identify  him.  So  the 
Commissary  got  up,  dressed,  went  out  and  waked 
up  Herzog,  and,  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  went 
with  him  to  the  watchhouse.  Herzog,  as  soon  as 
he  cast  eyes  upon  the  man  exclaimed,  Das  ist  der 
Beethoven!  ("That  is  Beethoven.")  He  took 
him  home  with  him,  gave  him  his  best  room,  etc. 
Next  day  came  the  Biirgermeister,  making  all 
sorts  of  apologies.  As  it  proved  Beethoven  had 
got  up  early  in  the  morning,  and,  slipping  on  a 
miserable  old  coat,  and  without  a  hat,  had  gone 
out  to  walk  a  little.  He  got  upon  the  towpath  of 
the  canal  and  kept  on  and  on;  seems  to  have 
lost  his  direction,  for,  with  nothing  to  eat,  he  had 
continued  on  until  he  had  brought  up  at  the  canal 
basin  at  the  Unger  Thor.  Here,  not  knowing 
where  he  was,  he  was  seen  looking  in  at  the 
windows  of  the  houses,  and  as  he  looked  so  like 
a  beggar  the  people  had  called  a  constable  and 
arrested  him.  Upon  his  arrest  the  composer  said, 
Ich  bin  Beethoven  ("  I  am  Beethoven  ") .  Warutu 
nicht  gar?  ("Of  course,  why  not?")  said  the 
policeman  :  ein  Lump  sind  sie ;  so  sieht  der  Bee- 
thoven nicht  aus  ("You're  a  tramp;  Beethoven 
doesn't  look  so").  Herzog  gave  him  some 
207 


BEETHOVEN 

decent  clothes,  and  the  Burgomaster  sent  him 
back  to  Baden,  where  he  was  then  living,  in 
the  Magistrate's  state  coach. 

This  simple  story  is  the  foundation  for  the  fine 
narrative  related  to  me  as  a  fact  in  Vienna  that 
Beethoven  got  into  this  scrape  following  troops 
from  Vienna  who  had  a  sham  right  near  Wiener 
Neustadt,  and  taking  notes  for  his  "  Wellington's 
Si  eg  "  —  which  whole  story  thus  goes  to  the 
ground. 

Cipriani  Potter  to  A.  W.  T.,  February  27,  1861. 
Beethoven  used  to  walk  across  the  fields  to  Vienna 
very  often.  Sometimes  Potter  took  the  walk  with 
him.  B.  would  stop,  look  about  and  express  his 
love  for  nature.  One  day  Potter  asked,  "  Who  is 
the  greatest  living  composer,  yourself  excepted?  " 
Beethoven  seemed  puzzled  for  a  moment,  and 
then  exclaimed,  "  Cherubini."  Potter  went  «n, 
"And  of  dead  authors?"  B. —  He  had  always 
considered  Mozart  as  such,  but  since  he  had  been 
made  acquainted  with  Handel  he  put  him  at  the 
head. 

The  first  day  P.  was  with  B.  the  latter  rushed 
into  politics  and  called  the  Austrian  Government 
all  sorts  of  names.  He  was  full  of  coming  to 
England,  and  said  his  desire  was  to  see  the  House 
of  Commons.  "  You  have  heads  upon  your 
shoulders  in  England." 

One  day  Mr.  Potter  asked  Beethoven's  opinion 
208 


ALEXANDER  W.   THAYER 

of  one  of  the  principal  pianists  then  in  Vienna 
(Moscheles).  Sprechen  Sie  nie  wieder  von  lauter 
Passagen  Spieler.  ("  Don't  ever  again  talk  to  me 
of  mere  passage  (scales)  players"). 

Once  Beethoven  told  Stein  that  some  strings  in 
his  Broadwood  P.  F.  were  wanting,  and  caught  up 
the  bootjack  and  struck  the  keys  with  it  to  show. 

July  4,  1860.  Called  on  Grillparzer.  The 
story  of  his  visit  to  Beethoven  in  Hetzendorf, 
dining  with  him,  and  of  Beethoven  riding  back 
with  him  to  the  Burgthor  and  then  leaving  money 
to  pay  the  coachman  is  true.  Beethoven  at 
dinner  went  into  the  next  room  and  brought  out 
five  bottles  of  wine ;  one  he  placed  at  Schindler's 
plate,  one  at  his  own,  and  three  at  Grillparzer's. 
Grillparzer  says  he  was  very  temperate  both  in 
eating  and  drinking  —  never  knew  him  except  on 
such  occasions  as  when  all  had  a  good  time  gener- 
ally, to  go  beyond  his  single  common  bottle  of 
common  wine. 

When  Grillparzer  was  a  child  his  family  lived  a 
summer  in  the  same  house  with  Beethoven  in 
Unter  Dobling.  Madame  Grillparzer  was  very 
fond  of  music  and  used  to  listen  to  Beethoven 
extemporizing.  One  day  she  stood  before  her 
own  door  listening  when  B.  came  rushing  out 
and  so  saw  her.  From  that  time  on  he  never 
played  in  his  own  room.  Mad.  G.  sent  word  to 
14  209 


BEETHOVEN 

him  by  his  servant  that  she  would  lock  her  door 
to  the  common  passage  and  her  family  should  go 
out  and  in  the  other  way.  No  use;  B.  never 
played  more  ! 

In  the  last  years  it  was  a  severe  task  to  con- 
verse with  him.  While  one  was  writing  answers 
to  his  questions  he  kept  on  talking  and  would 
forget  the  connection  of  what  was  written.  Grill- 
parzer  describes  him  as  a  most  kind  and  good- 
natured  man,  halb  verriickt  ("  half  crazy  "),  though 
I  believe  he  did  not  use  this  phrase. 

One  day  Neate  was  with  Beethoven  and  while 
urging  him  to  visit  England  mentioned  the  ex- 
cellence of  the  English  aurists,  and  was  sure  B. 
would  find  there  some  remedy  for  his  deafness. 

"  No,"  said  Beethoven,  in  substance,  "  I  have 
already  had  all  sorts  of  medical  advice.  I  shall 
never  be  cured.  I  will  tell  you  how  it  happened. 
I  was  once  busy  writing  an  opera  " 

Neate—  "Fidelio?" 

B.  —  "  No,  it  was  not  '  Fidelio.'  I  had  a  very 
ill-tempered  primo  tenore  to  deal  with.  I  had 
already  written  two  grand  airs  to  the  same  text, 
with  which  he  was  dissatisfied,  and  now  a  third, 
which,  upon  trial,  he  seemed  to  approve  and  took 
away  with  him.  I  thanked  the  stars  that  I  was  at 
length  rid  of  him  and  sat  down  immediately  to  a 
work  which  I  had  laid  aside  for  those  airs  and 
which  I  was  anxious  to  finish.  I  had  not  been 
half  an  hour  at  my  work  when  I  heard  a  knock  at 

2IQ 


ALEXANDER   W.  THAYER 

my  door  which  I  immediately  recognized  as  that 
of  my  primo  tenore.  I  sprang  up  from  my  table 
under  such  an  excitement  of  rage  that  as  the  man 
entered  the  room  I  threw  myself  upon  the  floor  as 
they  do  on  the  stage  "  [here  B.  spread  out  his 
arms  and  made  an  illustrative  gesture],  "coming 
down  upon  my  hands.  When  I  arose  I  found 
myself  deaf  and  have  been  so  ever  since.  The 
physicians  say  the  nerve  is  injured." 

Charles  Neate  was  an  English  pianist  who, 
out  of  admiration  for  Beethoven,  went  to 
Vienna  in  1815  and  made  the  composer's  ac- 
quaintance, remaining  in  familiar  intercourse 
with  him  for  eight  months.  He  was  the  first 
performer  of  Beethoven's  C-minor  and  E-flat 
concertos  in  England.  He  lived  to  be  ninety- 
three  years  old,  dying  on  Good  Friday,  1877, 
at  Brighton.  Thayer  visited  him  many  years 
before.  If  the  true  cause  of  his  deafness  was 
known  to  Beethoven  he  never  betrayed  the 
fact.  It  was  constitutional.  The  story  about 
the  fall  upon  the  floor  does  not  tell  of  the 
cause,  but  only  of  his  first  observation  of  the 
malady. 


211 


II 

THE  BEETHOVEN  MUSEUM 
AT  BONN1 

A  MUSICAL  student  can  not  visit  the  Bee- 
thoven Museum  at  Bonn  without  thinking  of 
Thayer.  It  is  almost  as  much  a  monument 
to  the  distinguished  biographer  as  to  the 
incomparable  genius.  Without  Thayer's 
labors,  indeed,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  Museum 
would  ever  have  come  into  being.  More 
than  anything  else  the  discoveries  which  he 
made  touching  the  antecedents  of  Beethoven 
and  the  musical  affairs  of  the  Electoral 
Court,  helped  to  stir  up  that  feeling  of  local 
patriotism  in  a  small  coterie  of  art-loving 
citizens  in  Bonn  which  culminated  in  1888 
in  the  purchase  of  the  house  in  which  the 
composer  was  born,  its  preservation  from 
ruin,  rescue  from  degradation  and  dedica- 
tion to  the  lovely  purpose  to  which  it  is 
henceforth  —  let  us  hope  in  scecula  sceculo- 

1  A  large  portion  of  this  essay  was  published  in  "  The 
Century  Magazine  "  and  is  reprinted  here  by  permission  of 
The  Century  Co. 

212 


THE   MUSEUM   AT  BONN 

rum  —  to  be  devoted.  It  is  singular,  in 
view  of  the  large  infusion  of  sentiment  in 
German  nature,  that  so  long  a  time  was 
permitted  to  elapse  between  the  death  of 
Beethoven  and  the  taking  of  these  wise 
and  pious  steps.  But  everything  is  singular 
which  concerns  Beethoven.  There  are  singu- 
lar lies  in  most  of  the  books  that  have  been 
written  about  him ;  and  even  more  singular 
truths.  On  his  deathbed  a  print  of  the 
house  in  which  Haydn  was  born  was  placed 
in  the  hands  of  the  Titan.  "  Look,  my  dear 
Hummel,"  said  he  to  the  friend  who  stood 
at  his  bedside,  "the  birthplace  of  Haydn! 
I  received  it  to-day  as  a  gift  and  it  has  given 
me  a  great  pleasure.  A  wretched  peasant's 
hut  in  which  so  great  a  man  was  born ! " 
Did  his  thoughts  go  back  to  the  lowly  walls 
which  echoed  his  own  infant  cries?  No  one 
can  know.  He  died  and  gave  no  sign.  It 
is  even  doubtful  whether  he  would  have 
been  able,  had  he  been  asked,  to  settle  a 
quarrel  like  that  which  broke  out  ten  years 
after  his  death  concerning  which  of  four 
houses  was  the  one  in  which  he  was  born. 
His  parents  had  occupied  lodgings  in  three 
houses  before  he  was  six  years  old.  He  had 
gone  away  from  Bonn  when  he  was  twenty- 
two  and  he  never  went  back.  There  were 
213 


BEETHOVEN 

no  domestic  ties  to  recall  him.  The  fulfil- 
ment of  his  manifest  destiny  required  that 
he  should  live  in  Vienna  whither  he  had 
been  sent  by  his  master  the  Elector  of 
Cologne,  who  was  ah  Archduke  of  Austria, 
the  youngest  son  of  Maria  Theresa.  Bonn 
forgot  him  until  he  was  dead,  or  if  it  did 
not  quite  forget  him,  it  was  too  much  con- 
cerned with  its  own  petty  affairs  to  remem- 
ber which  of  its  houses  had  held  the  cradle 
of  its  greatest  son.  Only  slowly  did  there 
dawn  on  the  city's  obtuse  perceptions  a  real- 
ization of  the  share  which  it  had  in  the  glory 
created  by  his  genius;  the  realization  never 
became  full  and  perfect  until  an  American 
admirer  of  that  genius  crossed  the  ocean  and 
took  up  the  task  of  writing  the  life-story  of 
Beethoven,  the  man. 

I  have  intimated  that  it  is  to  Thayer  that 
Bonn  is  indebted  chiefly  for  knowledge  of 
the  part  it  played  in  the  history  of  Bee- 
thoven. It  was  the  confessed  purpose  of  the 
biographer  to  strip  from  his  subject  a  mass 
of  traditional  fiction,  and  he  has  done  so; 
but  he  has  supplied  its  place  with  an  integu- 
ment of  romance  a  hundred-fold  more  inter- 
esting and  instructive.  He  has  recognized 
that  it  is  not  enough  that  we  interest  our- 
selves in  the  facts  of  the  artist's  outward 
214 


THE   MUSEUM   AT   BONN 

life  from  mere  affectionate  curiosity  con- 
cerning his  personality;  the  scientific  spirit 
of  the  times  requires  that  the  primary  pur- 
pose be  to  study  the  influences  that  shaped 
his  thoughts,  inspired  his  feelings  and 
prompted  his  manner  of  expression.  For 
those  who  wish  to  trace  the  operations  of 
the  law  of  heredity  and  find  long  and  cumu- 
lative trains  of  causes  for  each  effect,  Mr. 
Thayer's  researches  are  invaluable.  Grand- 
father, father,  and  son,  the  Beethovens  were 
in  the  active  service  of  the  Electoral  Court 
in  Bonn  sixty  years.  Thayer's  earliest  in- 
quiries begin  with  the  career  of  the  Elector 
Joseph  Clemens,  the  predecessor  of  Elector 
Clemens  Augustus  under  whom  the  grand- 
father of  the  composer  entered  the  Electoral 
Chapel.  They  embrace  the  personal  and 
artistic  character  of  the  potentates  with  the 
special  purpose  of  showing  what  were  the 
social  and  artistic  influences  exerted  by  them 
in  the  capital  of  their  political  and  reli- 
gious empire.  His  examination  of  the  Court 
archives  at  Dusseldorf  and  Bonn  discovered 
a  number  of  documents  which  enable  us  to 
reconstruct  a  perfect  picture  of  the  art-life 
of  the  city  for  three-quarters  of  a  century. 
The  opening  of  the  Museum  in  1890  was 
made  the  occasion  of  an  exhibition  of  these 
215 


BEETHOVEN 

documents  and  a  large  collection  of  Bee- 
thoven relics  from  all  over  Germany.  The 
whole  partook  of  the  character  of  a  series  of 
illustrations  to  Thayer's  book.  As  a  rule 
museums  in  which  relics  of  the  great  men 
of  the  earth  are  preserved  are  little  else 
than  curiosity  shops  which  provide  enter- 
tainment for  sentimental  misses  and  hero- 
worshippers.  The  Beethoven  Museum  is  of 
a  different  sort.  As  the  complement  of 
Thayer's  book  it  is  a  contribution  of  vast 
significance  to  the  history  of  the  composer 
which  by  direct  instruction  and  through 
suggestion  teaches  a  multitude  of  things 
concerning  the  man  and  his  art  which  can 
not  be  learned  elsewhere.  The  correctness 
of  this  proposition  is  demonstrated  in  the 
story  of  the  house  itself.  Beethoven  was 
dead  nearly  twenty  years  before  the  anti- 
quaries of  his  native  town  had  settled  a  con- 
troversy touching  which  of  several  houses 
was  the  one  in  which  he  had  first  seen  the 
light.  More  than  this:  Even  after  the 
fact  had  been  determined,  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century  was  permitted  to  go  by 
before  there  was  what  might  be  called  an 
official  recognition  of  the  results  of  the  con- 
troversy. When  Beethoven  died  in  1827 
there  were  four  houses  in  Bonn  of  each  of 
216 


THE   MUSEUM  AT  BONN 

which  it  was  thought  by  some  persons  that 
it  was  the  birthplace  of  the  master. 

They  were  respectively  in  the  Rheingasse, 
Wenzelgasse,    Auf   der   Briicke  and   Bonn- 
gasse.     It  required  but  little  investigation, 
however,    to   narrow   the    question    to    two 
houses,    that    in    the   Rheingasse   near  the 
river,    No.    934  (it   has  since  been   demol- 
ished  and   the   house   which   is  still   occa- 
sionally shown  to   visitors   as   Beethoven's 
birth-house  is  a  new  one  on  the  old  site)  and 
that  in  the  Bonngasse,  old  number  515,  new 
number  20,    near   the   market-place   in   the 
centre  of  the  town.     The  former  house  was 
generally  accepted  as  the  true  one  for  more 
than  a  decade  after  Beethoven  died.     It  was 
so  described  in  the  guidebooks  and  it  seemed 
as  if  the  majority  of  the  residents  who  re- 
membered the  great  man  as  a  child  asso- 
ciated him  with  the  house.     It  was  chiefly 
due  to  Dr.   Wegeler,   one  of  the  friends  of 
Beethoven's  youth,   that  the  claims  of  the 
Rheingasse  house  were  disallowed  and  the 
truth  was   established    that   the   Beethoven 
family   were    living     in    the    Bonngasse   in 
1770.      This  was  accomplished  in  a  contro- 
versy carried  on  in  the  "  Colnische  Zeitung  " 
in    1838.       There   seemed  to   be  no  official 
record  to  which  appeal  could  be  made  except 
217 


BEETHOVEN 

the  register  of  baptisms.  This  showed  that 
Beethoven  had  been  christened  in  the  parish 
of  St.  Remy  (Latin,  Remigius)  on  December 
17,  1770.  It  being  the  custom  to  baptize 
children  in  the  parish  where  they  were  born 
it  followed  that  Beethoven  was  born  in  the 
parish  of  St.  Remy.  On  this  the  cham- 
pions of  the  house  in  the  Rheingasse  placed 
their  chief  reliance,  for  their  street  had  the 
proper  parochial  relation,  while  the  Bonn- 
gasse  throughout  its  length  belonged  to  the 
parish  of  St.  Peter  in  Dietkirchen.  The 
evidence,  supported  as  it  was  by  the  testi- 
mony of  an  elderly  spinster  who  lived  in  the 
house  all  her  life  and  was  eight-and-one-half 
years  older  than  Beethoven,  and  who  said 
she  distinctly  remembered  seeing  him  as  a 
babe  lying  in  his  cradle,  and  also  as  a  child 
standing  on  a  foot  bench  before  the  piano- 
forte, would  have  been  conclusive  had  not 
Dr.  Wegeler  been  able  to  prove  that  Bonn 
had  undergone  an  ecclesiastical  reorganiza- 
tion in  1806  when  under  French  rule  which 
took  the  Bonngasse  out  of  the  parish  of  St. 
Remy  and  put  it  in  the  parish  of  St.  Peter 
in  Dietkirchen.  This  he  did  by  the  aid  of 
an  aged  ex-mayor  of  the  city  and  a  parish 
priest  who  had  belonged  to  St.  Remy  before 
the  re-districting  was  accomplished. 
218 


THE   MUSEUM   AT  BONN 

Having  thus  disposed  of  his  opponents' 
syllogism  by  proving  the  falsity  of  its  minor 
premise  Dr.  Wegeler  brought  forward  certi- 
fied copies  of  three  lists  of  subscribers,  resi- 
dent in  the  two  streets,  to  a  fund  for  the 
building  of  .a  parochial  house  in  the  parish 
of  St.  Remy.  The  lists  were  dated  1769, 
1770,  and  1771.  The  name  of  Beethoven's 
grandfather  appears  on  the  first  and  third 
with  his  official  designation  as  chapel-mas- 
ter, and  the  name  of  "  Herrn  van  Beethoven  " 
on  the  second ;  in  every  case  as  residents  in 
the  Bonngasse.  The  "  Herrn  van  Beetho- 
ven "  was  obviously  the  father  of  the  com- 
poser, since  the  name  is  unaccompanied  by  a 
title,  he  being  only  a  tenor  singer  in  the 
Electoral  Chapel  of  which  his  father  was 
director.  There  is  no  Beethoven  in  the 
Rheingasse  list,  though  the  name  of  the  then 
owner  of  the  house,  a  baker  named  Fischer, 
father  of  the  spinster  who  thought  she  re- 
membered baby  Louis  in  his  cradle,  appears. 
The  disagreements  were  afterward  cleared 
away  by  proof  that  the  Beethoven  family 
occupied  lodgings  in  the  house  in  the  Rhein- 
gasse for  a  space  after  1775.  The  babe  in 
the  cradle  was  a  younger  brother  of  the 
composer,  born  there.  A  brother  of  the 
spinster  Caecilia  Fischer,  named  Gottfried, 
219 


BEETHOVEN 

was  moved  by  the  controversy  to  write  down 
his  childhood  recollections,  and  family  tra- 
ditions, intending  to  publish  them  in  book- 
form.  He  was  born  ten  years  later  than 
Beethoven,  and  in  1838  was  a  master  baker. 
Literary  ability  he  had  none,  and  his  docu- 
ment grew  into  a  rambling  affair  full  of  re- 
iteration and  historical  details  drawn  from 
various  sources,  to  which  he  made  additions 
down  to  1864.  But  though  its  contention 
touching  the  birth-place  of  the  composer 
was  disproved,  it  is  an  extremely  interesting 
contribution  to  the  history  of  Bonn  and  the 
Beethoven  family,  and  is  now  one  of  the 
treasures  of  the  Beethoven  Museum. 

The  controversy  which  had  been  provoked 
by  a  review  of  Wegeler's  "Biographical 
Notices  "  was  summarized  by  the  Secretary 
of  the  Committee  under  whose  auspices  in 
1845  the  Beethoven  monument  was  placed 
in  the  Mtinsterplatz ;  but  despite  the  magni- 
tude of  the  celebration  which  attended  the 
unveiling  of  the  statue  no  steps  were  taken 
to  mark  the  house.  The  tablet  now  to  be 
seen  upon  its  front  was  not  affixed  until 
1870,  the  centenary  of  Beethoven's  birth. 
As  late  as  1886  I  was  invited  by  an  occu- 
pant of  the  house  which  now  stands  on  the 
old  site  in  the  Rheingasse  to  enter  and  in- 
220 


THE   MUSEUM  AT  BONN 

spect  the  room  in  which  Beethoven  was 
born.  The  old  tradition,  maintained  by  the 
thrifty  desire  to  earn  a  Trinkgeld,  "died 
hard,"  but  it  received  its  quietus  when  the 
house  in  the  Bonngasse  was  bought  by  the 
Verein  Beethoven-Haus  in  1889  and  the 
lying  tablet  on  the  house  in  the  Rheingasse 
was  removed  to  make  place  for  one  bearing 
an  inscription  in  harmony  with  the  facts. 

For  nearly  one  hundred  years  after  Bee-"1 
thoven  left  Bonn,  the  house  in  which  he  was 
born  was  permitted  to  remain  private  prop- 
erty, and  no  steps  were  taken  to  protect  it 
against  ignoble  uses.*  Had  it  been  turned 
into  a  brothel  the  municipal  authorities 
might  have  undertaken  its  regulation,  but 
as  its  abuse  did  not  reach  that  extreme  they 
felt  no  concern  about  it.  The  point  at 
which  it  stopped  in  its  descent  towards  in- 
famy was  only  a  little  short  of  that  sug- 
gested. ''  The  house  was  for  a  time  used  as  a 
beer-shop,  and  in  the  little  rear  garden  the 
owner  built  a  sort  of  summer  house  in  which 
he  gave  concerts  of  a  low  order.  The  win- 
dows of  the  garret  room  in  which  the  great- 
est tone-poet  that  the  world  has  produced  was 
born  (the  family  occupied  only  the  rear  por- 
tion of  the  building)  looked  out  on  what  the 
Germans  call  a  TingeltangeL  To  make  the 
221 


BEETHOVEN 

degradation  of  the  spot  complete  the  man- 
ager was  wont  to  advertise  his  concerts 
as  taking  place  "  in  the  house  in  which 
Beethoven  was  born."  The  last  programme 
containing  this  announcement  is  one  of 
the  curious  possessions  of  the  Museum.  In 
1889  the  house  was  bought  by  a  society 
organized  for  its  preservation  for  about 
$14,000  —  relatively  an  exorbitant  sum,  ex- 
acted by  a  conscienceless  owner  who  knew 
the  object  of  the  purchasers,  and  utilized 
the  advantage  which  his  knowledge  gave 
him.  The  first  efforts  of  the  society  were 
directed  towards  its  renovation  and  the  re- 
moval of  all  additions  which  had  been  made 
in  the  century.  The  concert-saloon  was  torn 
down  and  the  old  aspect  of  the  garden  re- 
stored; show  windows  which  had  been  built 
into  the  street-front  were  removed,  and  a 
modern  pair  of  stairs  was  replaced  by  the 
original  stairs  with  wrought  iron  rail  which 
had  luckily  been  stowed  away  in  a  store- 
room. The  floors,  doors  and  ceilings  in  the 
rear  house  were  thought  to  be  original,  and 
were  left  unchanged  beyond  necessary  re- 
pairs. Every  bit  of  wood  of  which  it  could 
reasonably  be  believed  that  it  was  part  of 
the  house  in  the  time  of  Beethoven  was 
piously  preserved,  and  Mr.  William  Kuppe, 
222 


THE   MUSEUM   AT  BONN 

a  musician  largely  instrumental  in  calling 
the  enterprise  into  existence,  told  me  with 
much  amusement  of  the  suspicions  touching 
his  mental  condition  which  he  aroused  in  the 
minds  of  the  workmen,  when  he  carefully 
wrapped  the  threshold  of  the  birth-room  in 
paper,  carried  the  well-worn,  worm-eaten 
piece  of  wood  away  till  the  work  of  renova- 
tion was  finished,  and  then  insisted  upon  its 
being  replaced.  In  May,  1890,  the  museum 
was  opened  to  the  public  with  the  exhibi- 
tion of  relics  already  mentioned,  and  a  festi- 
val of  Beethoven's  chamber  music,  in  which 
the  chief  performer  was  Joseph  Joachim,  the 
Honorary  President  of  the  society. 

Of  the  articles  exhibited  at  that  time  many 
have  remained  in  the  possession  of  the  soci- 
ety. It  is  my  purpose  to  speak  of  only  a 
few  of  them  which  serve  markedly  to  illus- 
trate the  educational  value  of  the  institution. 
Prominent  among  these  is  the  portrait  of  the 
mother  of  the  composer,  which  was  never 
publicly  exhibited  before  1890,  though  fora 
long  time  before  then  in  the  possession  of  a 
collector  of  Bonn.  Belief  in  its  authenticity 
is  based  chiefly  on  an  uninterrupted  tradi- 
tion reaching  back  through  the  century,  and 
its  correspondence  with  the  description  of 
her  personal  appearance  in  the  Fischer  manu- 
223 


BEETHOVEN 

script :  "  Stature  of  Madame  van  Beethoven 
rather  large;  longish  face ;  nose  a  little  bent; 
spare ;  earnest  eyes. "  She  was  a  native  of 
Ehrenbreitstein  and  her  father  was  chief 
cook  in  the  service  of  Caspar  Wenzelaus, 
the  Elector  of  Treves.  This  fact  in  a  man- 
ner connects  the  story  of  the  composer  with 
an  interesting  episode  in  the  career  of 
Prince-Bishop  Clemens  Augustus  —  the  cul- 
minating incident  in  that  career  indeed. 
Of  Clemens  Augustus,  Thayer  says  that  he 
"literally  danced  himself  out  of  this  world 
into  the  next."  It  is  extremely  likely  (evi- 
dence on  this  point  is  not  forthcoming,  how- 
ever) that  when  he  accomplished  this  feat 
the  father  of  Beethoven's  mother  was  on 
hand  to  see.  It  was  in  1761  that  on  his  way 
to  Munich  the  Elector  of  Cologne  stopped  at 
Castle  Ehrenbreitstein  to  visit  his  brother 
in  Church  and  State,  the  Elector  of  Treves. 
There  he  fell  ill  and  was  unable  to  partake 
of  the  dinner  which  the  chief  cook,  who  may 
have  been  Beethoven's  maternal  grandfather, 
had  provided.  But  if  he  could  not  eat, 
neither  could  he  withstand  the  charms  of 
the  Baroness  Waldendorf,  sister  of  his  august 
and  very  reverend  host.  To  her  he  gave  his 
episcopal  and  electoral  hand  for  not  less  than 
nine  dances.  Not  to  be  thought  wanting  in 
224 


THE   MUSEUM   AT  BONN 

gallantry  to  others  of  the  fair  he  forgot  the 
need  of  moderation,  fell  in  a  swoon,  and  was 
carried  to  his  chamber,  where  he  died  next 
day.  The  spectacle  of  an  Archbishop  danc- 
ing himself  to  death  through  admiration  of  a 
pretty  woman,  though  calculated  to  make  us 
marvel  to-day,  was  not  so  singular  a  century 
or  two  ago.  Their  vows  sat  lightly  upon 
many  of  the  men  who  exercised  a  double 
despotism  by  reason  of  their  headship  in 
both  church  and  state.  Most  of  them  were 
prelates  only  in  authority  and  name.  Joseph 
Clemens,  the  uncle  and  predecessor  of 
Clemens  Augustus,  was  a  Bavarian  prince. 
A  papal  dispensation  enabled  him  to  post- 
pone the  taking  of  holy  orders  for  seventeen 
years  after  he  entered  upon  his  office.  How 
much  appreciation  of  the  sanctity  of  the 
priesthood  he  felt  is  illustrated  in  a  story 
which  tells  how  once,  while  an  exile  in  Val- 
enciennes (he  had  espoused  the  wrong  side 
of  the  war  about  the  Spanish  succession  and 
his  army  had  fallen  foul  of  Marlborough), 
he  announced  a  purpose  to  preach  a  sermon 
on  the  approaching  first  day  of  April.  When 
the  time  came  the  church  was  thronged  by 
the  faithful.  Clad  in  the  sacred  vestments 
and  greeted  by  the  joyous  noise  of  trumpets 
the  Archbishop  climbed  into  the  pulpit. 
15  225 


BEETHOVEN 

Gravely  he  bowed  his  head,  decorously  made 
the  sign  of  the  cross,  then  shouted  "April 
fool ! "  and  withdrew  in  pomp  from  the  pres- 
ence of  his  astounded  congregation.  Of  this 
Prince-Bishop  it  is  related  that  after  he  had 
been  consecrated  by  the  saintly  Fenelon,  he 
attested  the  sincerity  of  his  piousness  by 
never  giving  audience  to  the  mother  of  his 
children  save  in  the  presence  of  witnesses. 
His  nephew,  who  made  the  saltatorial  exit 
from  life's  stage,  never  found  it  necessary  to 
resort  to  so  burdensome  a  formality.  He 
was  content  to  yield  up  a  place  in  the  heart 
of  his  mistress  to  his  minister,  Belderbusch, 
and  the  minister  requited  the  kindness  by 
assuming  the  paternity  of  the  children  in 
the  case.  The  lady  was  not  only  a  countess 
but  also  an  abbess,  and  she  and  the  minis- 
ter were  the  godparents  of  a  younger  brother 
of  Beethoven's,  Caspar  Anton  Carl. 

I  seem  to  have  digressed,  but  perhaps  the 
brief  sidewise  excursion  will  be  pardoned 
for  the  sake  of  the  light  which  it  throws 
upon  some  of  the  social  influences  which 
were  in  force  in  Bonn  during  the  early 
stages  of  Beethoven's  life-history.  These 
influences  seem  to  have  left  his  paternal 
grandfather  and  his  mother  untouched.  If 
it  be  true  that  the  cause  of  Beethoven's  deaf- 
226 


THE   MUSEUM   AT  BONN 

ness  was  an  inherited  disorder,  they  may  be 
said  to  have  contributed  indirectly  to  the 
misfortune  which  embittered  his  life.  But 
this  is  matter  only  for  scientific  speculation. 
Yet  if  it  be  so  it  serves  to  throw  into  higher 
relief  the  nobility  of  his  character,  the  chas- 
tity of  his  mind,  and  the  purity  of  his  life. 
It  also  accounts  for  his  life-long  reverence 
and  love  for  the  memory  of  his  grandfather 
(who  died  when  he  was  a  child),  and  for  that 
of  his  sweet,  patient,  suffering  mother.  To 
her  we  must  recur  for  a  moment.  Her 
maiden  name  was  Maria  Magdalena  Keve- 
rich.  Before  she  was  seventeen  years  old 
she  was  married  to  Johann  Laym,  a  servant 
of  the  Elector  of  Treves,  who  left  her  a 
widow  before  she  was  twenty.  She  was 
married  to  Johann  van  Beethoven,  tenor 
singer  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Elector  of 
Cologne  at  Bonn,  on  November  12,  1767, 
and  died  of  consumption  at  the  age  of  forty- 
one  years.  Her  last  sickness  hastened  the 
return  of  Beethoven  from  his  visit  to  Vienna 
in  1787.  The  portrait  of  her  in  the  museum 
is  supposed  to  be  the  work  of  Casper  Bene- 
dict Beckenkamp,  also  a  native  of  Ehren- 
breitstein  and  like  the  chief -cook  Keverich 
also  in  the  service  of  the  Elector  of  Treves. 
The  portrait  of  Beethoven's  mother,  as- 
227 


BEETHOVEN 

suming  it  to  be  such,  is  the  most  valuable 
contribution  which  the  museum  has  made  to 
this  branch  of  Beethoveniana.  It  has  a  rival 
in  interest,  however,  in  the  picture  of  the 
Countess  Brunswick.  This  has  long  been 
known  to  the  cognoscenti,  but  it  has  acquired 
a  new  and  special  value  of  late  years  from 
the  fact  that  investigators,  acting  on  a  hint 
thrown  out  by  Thayer,  have  at  last  identified 
the  Countess  as  the  "  immortal  beloved  "  of 
the  passionate  love-letters  by  Beethoven, 
long  but  falsely  believed  to  have  been  writ- 
ten to  the  Countess  Guicciardi.  There  can 
now  be  little  doubt  that  the  Countess  Bruns- 
wick was  the  other  party  to  the  mysterious 
betrothal  of  which  so  much  has  been  said. 

The  collection  of  over  a  hundred  paint- 
ings, prints,  casts,  etc.  of  Beethoven  now  in 
the  museum  serve  a  double  purpose  by 
directing  attention  at  once  to  the  few 
authentic  portraits  of  the  composer  in  exist- 
ence, and  to  the  wideness  and  wildness  of 
the  flights  in  which  artistic  fancy  has  in- 
dulged in  trying  to  produce  his  counterfeit 
presentment.  There  are  exceedingly  few 
pictures  in  existence  which  were  made  in 
Beethoven's  youth  and  early  manhood. 

It  was  only  after  he  became  famous  in 
Vienna  that  artists  were  eager  to  paint  him, 
228 


THE   MUSEUM  AT  BONN 

and  he  was  to  the  end  uncontrollable  in  the 
matter  of  sittings.     The  only  full  and  fair 
opportunity  which  he  ever  gave  to  a  good 
artist  was  in  1814  when  he  agreed  to  sit  a 
few  times  to  enable  Blasius  Hofel  to  correct 
some  defects  in  a  pencil  drawing  made  two 
years  before  by  Latronne,  a  French  artist. 
This  drawing  was  an  engraving  on  copper  for 
the  publisher  Artaria.     Beethoven  sat  in  pose 
for  about  five  minutes,  then  rushed   to  his 
pianoforte  and  began  improvizing.     The  poor 
engraver  was  at  his  wits'  end,  but  was  relieved 
of  his  embarrassment  by  the  composer's  ser- 
vant, who  told  him  to  take  a  position  near  the 
instrument  and  work  as  long  as  he  pleased, 
as  Beethoven  had  entirely  forgotten  him  and 
did  not  know  that  any  one  was  in  the  room. 
Hofel  took  the  advice  and  made  so  much 
progress  with  his  plate  that  its  completion 
required  only  two  more  sittings  of  less  than 
an  hour  each.     He  left   the  room   without 
the  knowledge  of  the  composer.     Beethoven 
always  esteemed  this  portrait  highly,  and  in 
1815  sent  a  copy  of  it  to  his  friend  Wegeler 
in   Bonn.     Its   excellence   is   strongly  con- 
firmed by  comparison  with  the  cast  of  Bee- 
thoven's face  made  in  1812  by  Franz  Klein, 
a  Viennese  sculptor.     All  the  strong  char- 
acteristics   of   the   mask  are   reproduced  in 
229 


BEETHOVEN 

the  engraving  —  the  magnificently  rounded 
forehead,  broad  cheek-bones,  unlovely  nose 
and  unyielding  mouth  —  though  it  must  be 
confessed  with  some  loss  in  ruggedness.  In 
the  mask  made  by  Danhauser  two  days  after 
death,  the  marks  of  the  mutilations  made  by 
the  surgeons  for  the  purposes  of  the  autopsy, 
the  organs  of  hearing  having  been  removed 
in  the  hope  of  learning  the  cause  of  his  deaf- 
ness, are  too  evident  to  make  contemplation 
anything  but  sorrowful.  The  tiny  silhouette 
which  holds  a  place  of  honor  in  the  museum 
and  is  comparatively  little  known  is  not  only 
the  earliest  of  all  Beethoven  portraits,  but 
the  only  one  of  unquestioned  authenticity 
dating  back  to  the  Bonn  period.  It  shows 
him  in  Court  dress,  peruke  and  ruff  as  he 
appeared  when  on  duty  as  member  of  the 
Electoral  Chapel.  It  was  made  in  1789  or 
1790  by  a  painter  named  Neesen  in  the 
house  of  the  von  Breuning  family  where 
Beethoven  was  a  frequent  visitor  before  he 
went  to  Vienna.  The  house  is  now  the  home 
of  Hermann  Neusser,  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  Verein  Beethoven-Haus.  The  singu- 
larly youthful  aspect  of  the  features  shown 
in  the  silhouette  is  to  me  inexplicable. 
Beethoven  was  at  the  time  eighteen  or  nine- 
teen years  old.  In  the  familiar  pen-sketch 
230 


THE   MUSEUM   AT  BONN 

by  the  painter  and  novelist  Lyser,  Bee- 
thoven's contemporaries  were  wont  to  praise 
the  correctness  of  the  attitude  and  carriage. 
This  judgment  now  finds  confirmation  in  the 
memoirs  of  Gottfried  Fischer  which  men- 
tion the  fact  that  already  as  a  lad  Bee- 
hoven  bent  forward  when  walking.  The 
uncontested  genuineness  of  the  portrait  of 
1808  painted  by  W.  J.  Mahler  is  its  chief 
commendation. 

For  nearly  a  century  the  world  has  tried 
to  solve  the  riddle  propounded  by  an  inscru- 
table Providence  when  it  permitted  Beetho- 
ven to  become  deaf.  Among  the  objects  in 
the  Museum  are  those  most  pitiful  memo- 
rials of  the  physical  calamity  which  over- 
took the  man  and  musician  Beethoven,  the 
ear-trumpets  and  pianoforte  with  whose  help 
he  strove  so  long  and  so  hopelessly  to  remain 
in  communion  with  the  world  of  sound.  The 
pianoforte  was  specially  made  for  him  by 
Graf  of  Vienna.  Its  peculiarity  is  that 
through  the  greater  part  of  its  compass  it 
has  four  unisonal  strings  for  each  key.  So 
long  as  he  could  be  made  to  hear  a  tone 
Beethoven  improvized  upon  this  instrument. 
But  under  what  distressful  circumstances! 
Maelzel,  the  mechanician  who  invented  and 
made  the  ear-trumpets  for  him,  built  a  reso- 
231 


BEETHOVEN 

nator  for  the  pianoforte.  It  was  somewhat 
in  the  shape  of  those  prompters'  boxes  which 
we  see  in  the  theatres  of  Germany,  and  was 
placed  on  the  instrument  so  that  it  covered 
a  portion  of  the  sounding-board  and  pro- 
jected over  the  keys.  Seated  before  the 
pianoforte,  his  head  all  but  inside  the  wooden 
shell,  one  of  the  ear-trumpets  held  in  place 
by  an  encircling  brass  band,  Beethoven  would 
pound  upon  the  keys  till  the  strings  jangled 
discordantly  with  the  violence  of  the  per- 
cussion, or  flew  asunder  with  shrieks  as  of 
mortal  despair.  Though  the  ear-trumpets 
had  been  useless  for  five  years,  they  were 
kept  in  Beethoven's  study  till  his  death. 
Then  they  found  their  way  into  the  Royal 
Library  at  Berlin  where  they  remained  until 
Emperor  William  II  presented  them  to  the 
museum.  The  smallest  one  was  used  by 
Beethoven  oftenest  and  for  the  longest  time. 
Maelzel  made  the  instruments  for  Beethoven 
at  the  time  when  the  two  were  contemplat- 
ing a  visit  to  London.  The  inventor  in- 
tended to  exhibit  his  panharmonicon,  and 
Beethoven  composed  for  it  the  descriptive 
piece  called  "Wellington's  Victory"  in 
imitation  of  the  battle  pieces  which  were 
at  the  height  of  their  popularity  then  and 
still  maintain  themselves  on  and  beyond 
232 


THE   MUSEUM   AT   BONN 

the  periphery  of  our  musical  communities. 
The  projected  tour  was  never  made,  and  the 
scheme  ended  in  a  quarrel  and  lawsuit  for 
which  the  blame  was  thrown  on  Maelzel 
though  the  fault  was  the  composer's.  A 
year  before  Beethoven  died  Maelzel  came  to 
America,  where  he  remained  until  his  death 
in  1838.  Here,  as  in  Europe,  he  depended 
for  a  livelihood  on  exhibitions  of  his  me- 
chanical contrivances,  and  though  the  biog- 
raphers down  to  Thayer  have  maligned  his 
character,  he  left  an  excellent  reputation, 
especially  in  Philadelphia,  where  he  lived 
longest.  One  of  his  masterpieces  of  mech- 
anism was  a  forerunner  of  Ajub,  the  chess- 
playing  automaton. 

What  shall  be  said  at  the  end  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  of  him  who  was  the  musical 
glory  of  its  beginning?  The  question  can 
not  be  answered  without  a  preliminary  in- 
quiry into  the  influence  which  deafness 
exerted  upon  his  artistic  character.  Half  a 
century  ago  the  features  of  Beethoven's  art 
which  are  now  looked  upon  by  many  as  evi- 
dences of  progress  were  considered  mournful 
aberrations  due  to  loss  of  the  sense  of  eu- 
phony and  the  development  of  an  unlovely 
egotism  which  chose  to  assert  itself  in  a  dis- 
regard of  recognized  law.  It  is  scarcely 
233 


BEETHOVEN 

worth  while  now  to  discuss  to  what  extent 
the  critics  of  his  time  and  a  few  decades 
after  were  right.  There  has  been  a  marvel- 
lous change  in  the  point  of  view.  Other 
times,  other  manners.  It  is  possible  now 

—  it  was  not  possible  then  —  to  see  that  in 
Beethoven  music  accomplished  one  cycle  of 
growth  and  started  out  on  another.     Start- 
ing from  simple  expressions  of  feeling  which 
at  first  were  unvolitional  and  therefore  truth- 
ful but  crude,  it  has  passed  through  a  period 
of  mixed  scientific  and  aesthetic  development 
which  lifted  it  to  the  dignity  of  an  art,  and 
enabled  it  to  give  keen  gratification  to  the 
ear  and  the  faculty  of  taste.     In  the  process 
of  this  development  a  portion  of  its  mission 
had  been  forgotten,  though  there  were  at  all 
times  men  who   apprehended  and  strove  to 
promote    it.      Beethoven  was   not  only  the 
embodiment  of  all  that  was  before  him,  but 
also  of  that  which  was  yet  to  come.     In  his 
works  music  returned  to  its  original  purpose 
with  its  power  raised  a  hundred-fold.     It  is 
possible,  — nay  more  it  is  extremely  likely, 

—  that  what  seemed  to  him  and  the  world 
the   greatest  evil  was    in   fact   the   highest 
good.      His  deafness,  while  it  changed  his 
social   instincts,   left  his  moral   nature   un- 
harmed. 

234 


THE   MUSEUM   AT  BONN 

If  it  drove  him  away  from  companionship 
with  man  it  drew  him  closer  to  nature.  If 
it  hushed  the  amiable  sounds  of  the  external 
world,  it  also  shut  out  some  of  its  turmoils 
and  enabled  him  the  better  to  hear  the  whis- 
perings of  his  own  soul.  Many  of  his  ad- 
mirers have  found  comfort  in  this  reflection 
without  thinking  how  inevitable  was  the 
consequence  to  his  art.  I  can  only  suggest 
a  line  of  thought  which  may  bring  some 
of  the  results  to  the  mind  of  the  reader. 
Macaulay,  in  his  demonstration  that  the  poetry 
of  young  civilizations  is  the  best  poetry, 
says  that  the  progress  of  refinement  rarely 
supplies  music,  painting,  sculpture  and 
poetry  —  the  last  least  of  all  —  with  better 
objects  of  imitation.  At  best  this  is  a  hasty 
generalization.  Music  has  as  little  associa- 
tion with  the  other  arts  in  respect  of  its  con- 
tents as  it  has  in  respect  of  its  materials.  It 
has  in  its  best  and  true  estate  no  object  of 
imitation,  and  because  of  this,  as  well  as  for 
other  reasons,  it  stands  isolated  from  all  the 
other  products  of  the  human  mind.  On  the 
one  hand  are  the  things  which  are  projected, 
grasped,  comprehended  by  the  intellect;  on 
the  other  in  awe-inspiring  solitude,  outside 
the  domain  of  reason  and  therefore  beyond 
its  reach,  stands  music,  bodying  forth  "the 
235 


BEETHOVEN 

forms  of  things  unknown."  It  is  a  pure  ex- 
pression of  the  will,  the  most  individual,  the 
most  lawless  of  the  arts  and  the  one  most 
subject  to  change.  Its  very  existence  is 
transient  and  contingent  upon  the  recurrent 
and  harmonious  cooperation  of  three  factors : 
creator,  interpreter  and  hearer. 

Consider  it  well,  each  tone  of  one  scale  in  itself  is 

nought, 
It  is  everywhere  in  the  world,  loud,  soft  and  all  is 

said. 

Give  it  to  me  to  use :  I  mix  it  with  two  in  my  thought 
And  —  there  !  Ye  have  heard  and  seen.  Consider 

and  bow  the  head. 

Unperformed  music  is  nothing,  and  with 
each  act  of  performance  there  goes  a  new  act 
of  creation.  The  activities,  physical,  intel- 
lectual and  emotional,  which  the  three  fac- 
tors must  exercise  if  music  is  to  be  at  all 
must  touch  hands ;  yet  they  can  not  be  iden- 
tical. What  is  cause  in  the  first  case,  is 
purpose  in  the  second  and  effect  in  the  third. 
\Creation  does  not  stop  with  the  composer  as 
it  does  with  the  painter,  sculptor  or  archi- 
tect; it  is  carried  over  to  the  interpreter 
whose  work  is  not  exposition  merely  but  re- 
creation. It  is  this  fact  which  entitles  the 
instrumental  performer  or  the  singer  to  the 
name  of  artist.  He  cannot  bring  the  crea- 
236 


THE   MUSEUM   AT  BONN 

tion  of  the  composer  to  the  apprehension  of 
the  hearer  without  blending  with  it  some- 
thing of  himself.      Upon  the  hearer,  finally, 
devolves  the  duty  of  perceiving  with  the  ear, 
judging  with  the  intellectual  and  aesthetic 
faculties  and  enjoying  with  all  these  media 
plus   the   emotions;    and    this    complicated 
activity  is  again  in  a  high  sense  re-creative. 
It  is  because  of  this  common  element  in  the 
work  of  composer,  performer  and  hearer  that 
the  body  of  music  which  one  generation  be- 
queaths to  its  successor  is  comparatively  so 
small.     We  do  not  persist  in  creating  what 
we  do  not  like.     Every  composer  is  kept  in 
court  for  daily  judgment  until  the  inevitable 
changes  in  taste,   which  follow  the  equally 
inevitable  variations  in  percipience,  relegate 
him  to  oblivion  or  the  closed  pages  of  his- 
tory.    To  Beethoven  music  was  not  only  a 
manifestation  of  the  beautiful, — an  art, — 
it  was  akin  to  religion.      He  felt  himself  to 
be  a  prophet,  a  seer.     All  the  misanthropy, 
engendered  by  his  unhappy    relations  with 
mankind,   could  not  shake  his  devotion  to 
this  ideal  which  had  sprung  from  the  truest 
artistic    apprehension    and    been    nurtured 
by  enforced    introspection  and   philosophic 
reflection. 

It  may  be  —  we  cannot  yet  say  —  that  he 
237 


BEETHOVEN 

went  too  far,  that  he  failed  to  recognize  the 
limitations  which  the  materials  of  music  set 
for  the  art ;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
he  started  it  on  the  only  paths  along  which 
progress  was  possible.  Many  of  the  things 
which  gave  offence  to  the  taste  of  his  time, 
and  the  first  decade  after,  are  as  inexcusable 
now  as  they  were  then  if  we  set  it  up  as  an 
inexorable  maxim  that  the  ear  must  always 
be  pleased.  But  that  conception  of  the  aim 
of  music  is  as  narrow  as  were  the  rules  of 
formal  construction  which  he  was  faulted  for 
violating.  We  know  now  that  change  of 
form  is  not  destruction,  but  that  in  art  the 
vessel  must  conform  to  its  contents.  The 
seemingly  false  entry  of  the  horn  in  the  first 
movement  of  the  "Heroic"  symphony,  the 
rhythmical  and  melodic  distortion  of  the 
concluding  measures  of  the  Allegretto  of 
the  symphony  in  A  major,  the  crashing  dis- 
cord composed  of  all  the  tones  of  the  minor 
scale  in  the  instrumental  introduction  to  the 
last  movement  of  the  "  Choral  "  symphony  are 
not  to  be  set  down  as  beauties  per  se ;  they 
derive  their  justification  from  their  signifi- 
cance which,  in  turn,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
emotional  and  poetical  contents  of  the  works 
in  which  they  occur.  For  the  conception  of 
characteristic  beauty  as  opposed  to  the  old 
238 


THE   MUSEUM   AT  BONN 

conception  of  absolute  beauty  Beethoven 
stood  sponsor.  Whither  will  it  lead  us? 
We  cannot  tell,  nor  will  those  be  able  to 
answer  who  shall  listen  to  the  music  of  a 
century  hence.  The  limits  of  music  have 
not  been  set,  and  can  not  be  set.  Music  is 
the  freest  mode  of  expression  open  to  the 
imagination,  and  Ruskin  tells  us 

while  as  it  penetrates  into  the  nature  of  things, 
the  imagination  is  pre-eminently  a  beholder  of 
things  as  they  are,  it  is,  in  its  creative  function,  an 
eminent  beholder  of  things  when  and  where  they 
are  not ;  a  seer,  that  is,  in  the  prophetic  sense, 
calling  the  things  that  are  not  as  though  they 
were ;  and  forever  delighting  to  dwell  on  that 
which  is  not  tangibly  present. 


239 


REFLECTIONS    IN    WEIMAR 


THE   INFLUENCE  OF   GOETHE 
AND   LISZT 

WEIMAR  ceased  to  be  specifically  a  musical 
Mecca  with  the  departure  of  Liszt.  I  fancy 
that  if  some  of  its  secret  archives  were 
thrown  open  to  literary  students,  especially 
those  who  still  find  Goethe  an  interesting 
subject  for  study,  it  might  for  awhile  be- 
come a  literary  Mecca;  but  in  spite  of  its 
idyllic  park,  it  has  been  neglected  by  tourists 
of  late  years  and  only  historical  interest  is 
ascribed  to  it  by  the  travelling  newspaper 
correspondent.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to 
say  that  things  were  not  always  thus.  Dur- 
ing two  periods  in  its  history,  both  long, 
both  eventful  and  both  big  with  significance 
in  the  development  of  two  intimately  related 
arts,  the  little  town  held  the  attention  of 
the  world  as  cities  with  twenty  times  its 
population,  forty  times  its  wealth  and  a 
hundred  times  its  commercial  and  political 
importance  could  not  hold  it.  To-day  it 
lives  chiefly  on  the  memories  of  those  golden 
243 


REFLECTIONS   IN   WEIMAR 

eras;  and  if  those  memories  were  not  so 
perennial  in  their  beauty  and  inexhaustible 
in  their  educational  value,  the  persistence 
with  which  they  are  forced  upon  the  atten- 
tion of  the  visitor  would  be  horribly  oppres- 
sive. This  is  especially  true  of  the  first  and 
most  glorious  era,  that  of  which  the  Grand 
Duke  Charles  Augustus  was  the  Pericles, 
and  which  was  illuminated  by  light  from  the 
minds  of  Goethe,  Schiller,  Herder  and  Wie- 
land.  He  who  comes  to  Weimar  now  with 
the  ordinary  equipment  of  the  tourist  — 
Baedecker,  umbrella  and  ostrich-appetite 
for  relics  of  the  great  dead  —  can  still  find 
occupation  for  a  day  or  two;  but  he  must  be 
panoplied  in  good-nature,  and  patience  must 
wrap  him  about  like  a  garment,  if  he  wishes 
to  avoid  being  thrown  into  a  high  fever  by 
the  appeals  which  will  be  made  to  him  to 
inspect  places  and  things  hallowed  to  the 
local  mind  by  association  with  Goethe. 
Though  he  come  for  the  very  purpose  of  put- 
ting himself  as  much  as  possible  in  touch 
with  the  intellectual  activities  which  have 
been  felt  as  a  direct  influence  from  the  mind 
of  the  last  poet  of  antique  greatness,  he  shall 
find  it  difficult  at  times  to  avoid  paraphras- 
ing the  remark  made  by  Mark  Twain  to  his 
Italian  guide  when  he  requested  him  to  lump 
244 


GOETHE   AND   LISZT 

the  matter  of  his  disquisition  and  say  that 
God  Almighty  made  the  world  "after  de- 
signs by  Michelangelo."  Goethe  is  as  per- 
vasive in  Weimar  as  Buonarotti  in  Rome. 

A  splendid  row  of  volumes  containing  the 
programmes,  almost  complete,  of  the  per- 
formances given  at  the  Theatre  and  Opera 
House  at  Weimar  from  1793,  two  years  after 
Goethe  became  its  artistic  director,  down  to 
to-day,  is  preserved  in  the  Grand  Ducal 
Library.  In  them  the  starting-point  for 
many  a  discourse  on  the  drama,  spoken  and 
sung,  might  be  found.  The  most  timely  of 
all  would  perhaps  suggest  itself  if  after  a 
perusal  of  their  contents  one  were  to  go  over 
to  the  Theaterplatz  and  take  a  look  at  the 
modest  play-house  which  has  figured  so 
proudly  in  the  history  of  the  stage.  For 
more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  Goethe 
swayed  the  artistic  fortunes  of  the  institu- 
tion—  from  1791  to  1817.  For  a  decade, 
forty  years  later,  Franz  Liszt  was  the  soul 
of  its  operatic  department.  During  the 
first  period  the  classical  German  drama  was 
wrought  into  its  perfect  form;  verse  tri- 
umphed over  prose  as  a  vehicle  of  artistic 
utterance;  Goethe  and  Schiller  told  the 
actors  how  they  wanted  their  lines  read,  and 
even  attempted  to  act  in  the  parts  created 
245 


REFLECTIONS   IN   WEIMAR 

by  them;  all  Germany  studied  the  traditions 
of  Weimar.  In  the  second  period  the  pre- 
eminence which  the  theatre  enjoyed  was 
transferred  from  its  dramatic  to  its  musical 
department.  There  Liszt,  having  with- 
drawn from  a  career  as  a  virtuoso  at  the 
meridian  of  its  effulgence,  expended  his 
wonderful  powers  in  behalf  of  the  classical 
masters  and  the  gospel  of  the  neo-romantic 
art.  Toward  Weimar  the  great  fugitive 
Wagner  turned  his  face  from  his  Swiss 
asylum  and  longed  to  be  among  those  who 
heard  the  first  strains  of  "  Lohengrin. "  Most 
pitifully  did  he  implore  Liszt,  who  had  un- 
dertaken the  task  of  converting  the  world  to 
belief  in  the  new  evangel,  to  bespeak  pro- 
tection from  his  great  friend  and  patron  the 
grandson  of  that  Grand  Duke  who  knew  how 
to  fasten  Goethe  to  his  side  for  fifty-six 
years,  so  that  he,  the  political  outcast,  might 
visit  Weimar  in  disguise  but  for  one  night 
and  hear  in  fact  the  strains  to  which  he  had 
so  long  listened  in  fancy. 

But  it  was  not  Wagner  alone  for  whom 
the  unselfish  Liszt  made  propaganda  while 
Chapel-master  Extraordinary  at  Weimar. 
Berlioz's  "  Benvenuto  Cellini,"  Schumann's 
"Genoveva,"  Raff's  "King  Alfred,"  Schu- 
bert's "Alfonso  and  Estrella"  and  Corne- 
246 


GOETHE   AND   LISZT 

lius's  "Barber  of  Bagdad,"  besides  many 
other  works  of  younger  or  less  renowned 
composers,  all  saw  the  light  of  the  stage- 
lamps  in  this  secluded  theatre.  Yet  when 
Goethe  administered  the  affairs  of  the  Court 
Theatre,  Weimar  had  only  ten  thousand  in- 
habitants; and  when  Liszt  made  the  Court 
Opera  the  heart  of  musical  Germany,  send- 
ing out  from  it  the  rich,  red,  arterial  blood 
which  the  country  needed,  the  institution 
cost  less  in  a  year  than  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  in  New  York  costs  in  a  month. 
This  points  out  the  great  lesson  which  is 
enforced  by  the  history  of  the  Weimar 
Theatre  in  its  two  periods  of  glory:  true 
culture  is  dependent  neither  on  fashion  nor 
on  wealth. 

I  have  taken  the  trouble  to  look  a  little 
into  the  financial  history  of  the  institution. 
The  theatre  had  existed  in  one  form  or 
another  for  a  long  time,  when,  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  Goethe,  it  was  raised  to  the  dig- 
nity of  a  Court  Theatre  in  1791.  The 
orchestra  was  established  in  1756  by  the 
Grand  Duke  Ernst  Augustus,  father  of 
Goethe's  patron.  This  Grand  Duke,  like 
many  of  Germany's  royalties,  had  been 
musical  in  his  youth.  He  was  a  pupil  of 
Johann  Ernst  Bach,  and  reckoned  a  good 
247 


REFLECTIONS   IN   WEIMAR 

player  on  the  viol  da  gamba  and  lute.  Later 
in  life,  he  grew  too  fond  of  hunting  and 
fighting,  and  maintained  only  a  hunting  band 
of  pipers;  but  when  he  made  Weimar  his 
residence  he  established  a  court  orchestra 
and  called  his  old  teacher  from  Eisenach 
to  be  chapel-master.  The  band  numbered 
twenty  men,  among  them  being  Johann 
Casper  Vogler,  who  by  the  confession  of 
Johann  Sebastian  Bach  was  his  greatest 
pupil.  The  orchestra  has  been  maintained 
ever  since,  and  has  had  men  like  Hummel 
and  Chelard  among  its  conductors,  though 
it  never  attracted  attention  as  a  concert  body 
save  under  Liszt.  This,  however,  is  aside 
from  my  purpose,  which  is  to  show  how 
economically  Weimar's  illustrious  theatre 
has  been  run.  In  Goethe's  time  the  receipts 
at  the  performances  in  Weimar,  Lauchstadt 
and  Rudolstadt  averaged  eleven  thousand 
thalers;  the  grand  ducal  subvention  was 
seven  thousand  thalers  for  the  theatre  and 
six  thousand  thalers  to  pay  the  orchestra;  in 
all,  twenty-four  thousand  thalers,  or  about 
$  1 8,  ooo  in  American  money.  And  this  sum 
sufficed  to  meet  all  expenses,  for  it  is  of 
record  that  no  supplementary  contribution 
from  the  privy  purse  of  Charles  Augustus 
was  ever  called  for  during  Goethe's  admin- 
248 


GOETHE   AND   LISZT 

istration.  A  generation  later  the  subven- 
tion had  been  raised  to  twenty-one  thousand 
thalers  for  the  theatre,  and  twelve  thousand 
thalers  for  the  orchestra,  but  the  receipts 
were  only  one  thousand  thalers  more,  and 
the  Grand  Duke  was  called  on  to  pay  a 
deficit  of  ten  thousand  thalers.  To  under- 
stand the  modesty  of  these  figures  it  is  neces- 
sary to  know  that  the  theatre  seats  only  one 
thousand  persons,  and  that  the  prices  of  ad- 
mission during  all  these  palmy  days  ranged 
from  twelve  and  a  half  to  seventy-five  cents. 
On  ordinary  subscription  nights  it  was  pos- 
sible to  take  in  only  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thalers  at  these  rates,  and  when  Sontag  sang 
for  the  first  time  in  Weimar  and  the  prices 
were  raised  two  and  a  half  times,  the  receipts 
were  yet  less  than  twelve  hundred  thalers, 
say  about  $800  in  the  United  States. 

Of  course  all  this  presupposes  a  vastly 
different  state  of  things  from  what  our  thea- 
tres and  opera  houses  are  accustomed  to. 
In  Goethe's  day  the  play  was  the  thing,  and 
not  its  clothes.  He  found  it  as  little  nec- 
essary as  Shakespeare  to  rely  on  gaudy  trap- 
pings and  adornments.  In  his  loft  were 
scenes  depicting  a  forest,  a  city,  a  few  rooms, 
a  rocky  landscape,  and  a  temple.  They  were 
not  many,  nor  even  well  painted,  but  they 

249 
\ 


REFLECTIONS   IN   WEIMAR 

sufficed.  "Iphigenia,"  "Tasso,"  "Faust," 
"Don  Carlos,"  "The  Robbers,"  could  be 
played  with  their  aid.  The  entire  company, 
lyric  as  well  as  dramatic,  numbered  only 
twenty-one  men  and  women.  Sometimes 
the  principals  had  to  appear  in  two  parts, 
and  the  members  of  the  dramatic  company 
were  obliged,  under  their  contracts,  to  sing 
in  the  operas.  Even  the  costumer  and  car- 
penter had  to  make  themselves  as  useful  and 
ornamental  as  possible  on  the  stage.  When 
Mozart's  operas  were  given  the  chorus  was 
recruited  from  pupils  of  the  Teachers'  Sem- 
inary, and  simple  dances  were  executed  by 
the  children  of  court  officials  and  private  citi- 
zens. This  draft  on  the  pupils  of  the  semi- 
nary gave  rise  to  a  somewhat  acrimonious 
controversy  between  Herder  and  Goethe. 
Herder  had  under  his  care  the  educational 
as  well  as  religious  institutions  of  the  Duchy. 
He  had  long  complained  about  the  neglect 
of  study  caused  by  the  pupils'  attendance  on 
rehearsals  at  the  theatre,  when  one  day,  at  a 
performance  of  "Don  Giovanni,"  the  red 
cloak  of  one  of  the  little  imps  that  had  come 
to  carry  the  wicked  hero  to  the  realms  of 
Pluto  got  caught  in  a  trap.  The  imp  was, 
of  course,  one  of  the  seminarians.  Herder 
thought  that  the  cause  of  education  was 
250 


GOETHE   AND   LISZT 

brought  into  ridicule  by  the  amused  laughter 
of  the  audience  at  the  awkward  mishap.  He 
sent  a  protest  to  the  Grand  Duke  against 
the  further  use  of  pupils  at  the  theatre  and 
argued  with  great  force  that  the  influence  of 
this  unnatural  union  of  theatre  and  school 
was  demoralizing  to  the  latter.  Goethe, 
mindful  only  of  his  beloved  theatre,  took 
arms  against  him  and  had  his  own  way,  just 
as  a  little  later  he  persuaded  Charles  Augus- 
tus to  give  one  of  the  theatre  musicians 
charge  of  the  church  music,  though  he  was 
a  Frenchman  and  a  Catholic  and  knew  nothing 
of  the  institution  given  into  his  care.  Again 
Herder  complained  bitterly,  but  in  vain,  and 
the  righteousness  of  his  position  was  not 
made  plain  until  the  experiment  had  proved 
a  failure  and  the  mischief  he  feared  had  been 
done. 

It  suggests  a  singular  commentary  on 
human  nature,  even  grand  ducal  human 
nature,  that  though  Goethe's  influence  was 
powerful  enough  to  persuade  Charles  Augus- 
tus to  mar  the  work  of  so  illustrious  a  man 
as  Herder  in  a  department  of  government  in 
which  the  equally  great  preacher  and  'scholar 
stood  pre-eminent,  it  was  not  great  enough 
to  withstand  the  combined  assaults  of  a 
prima  donna  and  a  poodle  dog.  But  the 

251 


REFLECTIONS   IN  WEIMAR 

prima  donna  was  the  Grand  Duke's  mistress 
("companion  of  my  moments  of  recreation," 
he  called  her)  and  the  dog  was  the  progenitor 
of  that  talented  race,  some  of  whose  mem- 
bers are  still  popular  in  the  Bowery  theatres. 
He  was  a  "star"  performer  who  came  in 
April,  1817,  with  his  master  from  Vienna 
to  exhibit  a  historical,  romantic  drama  trans- 
lated from  the  French,  entitled  "The  Dog 
of  Aubri  de  Mont-Didier. "  Goethe  objected 
to  the  engagement,  but  the  Grand  Duke 
granted  the  request  of  Fraulein  Jagemann, 
who  had  long  ruled  the  theatre  and  opera, 
and  ordered  the  pair  from  Vienna  to  display 
their  talents.  There  seems  to  be  no  ques- 
tion but  that  the  poodle  played  his  part 
brilliantly  throughout  three  long  acts.  He 
pulled  the  bell-rope  at  a  tavern  door,  carried 
a  lantern  into  the  forest  at  a  critical  point 
in  the  plot,  discovered  the  murderer  of  his 
master,  pursued  him  from  rock  to  rock  and 
attacked  him  with  a  rage  that  was  only  half 
simulated,  for  it  was  thought  for  awhile  that 
the  poor  actor  who  had  the  unamiable  part 
of  murderer  to  play  was  really  in  danger  of 
his  life  from  the  dog's  attack.  Yet  Goethe, 
who  seems  to  have  forgotten  that  he  had 
developed  Mephistopheles  out  of  a  poodle 
in  his  great  dramatic  poem,  remained  obsti- 
252 


GOETHE   AND  LISZT 

nately  blind  to  the  moral  and  intellectual 
grandeur  of  the  performance.  The  play  was 
given  twice,  on  April  12  and  14,  1817,  with 
uproarious  success,  and  on  April  17  Goethe 
resigned  the  artistic  direction  of  the  Weimar 
Court  Theatre.  And  Fraulein  Jagemann  got 
a  title  and  estates  as  Frau  von  Heygendorf. 

A  portrait  of  Fraulein  Jagemann  hangs 
in  the  Grand  Ducal  Library.  It  was  evi- 
dently painted  at  a  time  when  she  had  begun 
to  put  on  matronly  proportions.  Inasmuch 
as  she  survived  Charles  Augustus  full  twenty 
years  and  died  at  the  age  of  about  seventy  in 
1848,  the  picture  is  probably  the  counterfeit 
presentment  of  her  as  she  appeared  between 
her  fortieth  and  fiftieth  year.  It  shows  her 
in  the  character  of  Sappho,  with  Greek  robe 
and  lyre.  If  the  tale  of  Charles  Augustus's 
infatuation  and  the  many  contemporaneous 
records  were  not  on  hand  to  attest  the  fact, 
this  portrait  would  yet  prove  that  she  was  a 
woman  of  extraordinary  beauty.  In  spite  of 
the  somewhat  too  generous  upholstery  of 
integument,  the  Greek  lines  of  her  profile 
are  still  to  be  seen,  and  the  faint  reflection 
of  what  must  have  been  a  peculiarly  lustrous 
and  speaking  pair  of  eyes.  Her  talent  seems 
to  have  been  commensurate  with  her  beauty, 
for  the  programmes  show  that  she  took  part 
253 


REFLECTIONS   IN  WEIMAR 

in  comedy,  tragedy  and  opera,  and  the  judg- 
ment of  the  time  is  that  she  was  equally 
great  in  all  departments.  Musically,  her 
gifts  shone  brightest  in  Mozart's  operas,  and 
in  the  spoken  drama  her  principal  parts  were 
Maria  Stuart,  Thekla,  Portia  and  Iphigenia. 

It  is  through  this  brilliant  woman  that  we 
of  to-day,  prone  to  look  back  upon  an  artistic 
institution  which  felt  the  direct  influence  of 
men  like  Goethe  and  Schiller  and  enjoyed  a 
renown  almost  without  parallel  in  the  history 
of  the  stage  with  a  feeling  of  awe,  are  privi- 
leged also  to  see  that  in  those  classic  days 
of  the  German  drama  there  was  also  present 
the  alloy  of  weak  human  nature.  Brilliant  as 
this  Demoiselle  Jagemann  was,  I  have  yet  to 
learn  that  Goethe  ever  sang  her  praises.  The 
episode  of  "The  Dog  of  Aubri  de  Mont- 
Didier"  tells  part  of  the  story.  It  was  the 
culmination  of  twenty  years  of  effort  to 
acquire  complete  mastery  of  the  theatre. 
She  was  a  prima  donna  like  many  prima 
donnas  of  to-day.  Tears  and  hysterics 
marked  her  triumphant  path.  Her  unfor- 
tunate colleagues  were  despoiled  of  their 
best  roles  the  moment  she  lusted  after  them, 
and  the  stage  manager  stood  ceaselessly  upon 
the  treadmill  of  perplexity.  Once,  it  was  in 
1801,  an  unhappy  conductor  thought  he  knew 
254 


GOETHE  AND   LISZT 

more  than  she  about  the  proper  tempi  of 
Donna  Anna  s  airs  in  "  Don  Giovanni. "  A 
quarrel  in  the  rehearsal  left  each  determined 
to  choose  the  time.  At  the  performance  the 
conductor,  Kranz,  used  the  advantage  which 
the  baton  gave  him.  Jagemann  quit  sing- 
ing, burst  into  tears  and  left  the  stage.  Of 
course  she  appealed  to  the  Grand  Duke,  with 
whom  each  saline  drop  weighed  more  than 
all  the  eloquent  arguments  of  the  musician. 
Poor  Kranz  was  suspended  from  office,  and 
when  later  he  was  permitted  to  resume  his 
functions,  it  was  with  the  condition  that  he 
should  never  conduct  when  Jagemann  sang. 

Nevertheless    a    glory    which    Jagemann 
never  won  with  all  her  beauty,  talent   and 
influence  was  garnered  by  one  who  had  pre- 
ceded  her   on   Weimar's  stage,    and  whose 
portrait  also  hangs,  a  legacy  from  Goethe, 
in  the  library  at  the  other  end  of  the  room 
which    contains   Charles   Augustus's  "Sap- 
pho."    The  picture   shows   the   features   of 
Corona  Elizabeth  Wilhelmine  Schroeter,  and 
is  doubly  interesting  from  the  fact  that   it 
was  painted  by  its  subject  and  presented  to 
Goethe  as  a  souvenir  of  an  occasion  when 
she  had  been  made  happy  by  the  privilege  of 
participating  with  him  in  one  of   his    own 
plays.       To    have    been    admired,    perhaps 
255 


REFLECTIONS   IN   WEIMAR 

loved,  by  the  greatest  poet  of  his  time,  and 
one  of  the  handsomest  men,  is  enough  in 
the  opinion  of  the  impressionable  German 
maiden  of  to-day  to  give  any  woman  a  claim 
on  immortality.  The  claim  is  recognized  as 
valid  only  in  the  case  of  a  favored  few,  for 
alas !  the  claimants  were  so  many !  Goethe 
himself,  however,  put  the  sign  of  his  approval 
on  the  case  of  Corona  Schroeter,  not  by  put- 
ting her  name  in  the  mouths  of  scandal- 
mongers, but  by  embalming  it  in  the  verses 
which  he  wrote  "  On  the  death  of  Miedling. " 
Miedling  was  an  actor  of  the  company  which 
was  wont  to  entertain  the  grand  ducal  court 
before  the  Court  Theatre  had  been  called 
into  existence.  So  was  Corona  Schroeter, 
whom  Goethe  met  first  in  Leipsic  and 
brought  to  Weimar  in  1778.  She  was  then 
thirty  years  old,  a  singer,  actress,  composer 
of  songs  (she  set  some  of  Goethe's  verses), 
and,  in  an  amateur  way,  painter.  The  por- 
trait which  she  gave  to  Goethe  contrasts 
strongly  with  that  of  Jagemann  in  respect 
of  spirituality,  and  would  attract  attention 
aside  from  its  associations.  I  fear  but  little 
of  the  beauty  of  Goethe's  tribute  will  appear 
in  the  following  attempt  at  a  translation  of 
the  lines  which  are  devoted  to  this  lovely 
woman  in  the  poem  referred  to : 
256 


GOETHE   AND   LISZT 

More  room,  my  friends !     Fall  back  a  little  space ! 
See  one  approach  with  bearing  full  of  grace  ! 
'T  is  she  herself,  on  whom  we  e'er  depend  — 
Our  pray'rs  are  heard  —  their  gift  the  muses  send  ! 
You  know  her  well,  the  cause  of  sure  delight, 
A  wondrous  flower  she  bursts  upon  our  sight. 
To  be  a  model  she  to  earth  was  sent 
Wherein  the  real  and  ideal  should  be  blent. 
Of  all  their  gifts  the  nine  withheld  no  part, 
And  nature  breathed  in  her  the  breath  of  art. 
To  lend  her  charms  the  world  itself  is  spent, 
And  e'en  thy  name,  Corona,  is  an  ornament. 
Behold  her  now  !     Her  movements  light  as  air, 
Unconscious  she  who  seems  with  purpose  fair ! 
In  her  observe  with  grateful,  deep  surprise, 
An  ideal  mixture,  saved  for  artists'  eyes ! 

The  collection  of  programmes  in  the 
Library  reaching  from  1793  down  to  date, 
and  encompassing  both  periods  of  renown 
enjoyed  by  Weimar's  Theatre,  tempted  me 
once  to  a  comparative  study  for  which  I  did 
not  have  sufficient  time.  Instead  I  sought 
to  gain  what  light  I  could  by  noting  the 
repertories  of  certain  years,  selected  because 
of  their  chronological  relation.  These  were, 
so  far  as  the  opera  under  Goethe's  adminis- 
tration was  concerned,  first,  the  third  year 
of  the  existence  of  the  theatre  as  a  Court 
Theatre,  say  from  October,  1793,  to  the  end 
of  1794.  The  operatic  list  within  this  time 
was  not  imposing.  Interesting  appeared  the 
17  257 


REFLECTIONS   IN   WEIMAR 

first  performance  of  Martini's  "Tree  of 
Diana,"  on  October  10,  1793.  This  is  the 
opera  of  which  Da  Ponte  wrote  the  libretto 
simultaneously  with  that  of  "Don  Gio- 
vanni," if  his  extremely  fantastical  memoirs 
written  in  New  York  are  to  be  credited. 
Another  first  performance  was  that  of 
Mozart's  "Magic  Flute"  on  January  16, 
1794.  It  became  popular  at  once  as  fre- 
quent repetitions  evidence. 

These  are  the  only  operatic  first  produc- 
tions falling  within  the  time,  but  a  perform- 
ance of  Mozart's  "Entfuhrung"  on  June  16, 
1794,  deserves  to  be  noticed  because  of  a 
note  upon  the  house-bill :  Madame  Weber 
ivird  in  der  Rolle  der  Constanze  sick  zu 
empfehlen  die  Ehre  haben.  The  Madame 
Weber  who  made  her  d6but  in  the  Weimar 
opera  on  this  occasion  was  the  mother  of  the 
composer  of  "  Euryanthe  "  and  "  Der  Frei- 
schutz."  Carl  Maria  von  Weber  was  eight 
years  old  at  the  time.  His  mother  remained 
a  member  of  the  company  from  June  to 
September,  1794,  but  as  her  name  does  not 
appear  on  the  house-bills  after  the  occasion 
just  noted,  I  fancy  that  she  did  not  succeed. 
The  composer's  talent  was  inherited  from 
his  father,  Major  Franz  Anton  von  Weber, 
a  soldier  who  was  so  passionately  fond  of 
258 


GOETHE  AND   LISZT 

music  that  he  carried  his  violin  with  him  on 
his  promenades.  Finally,  it  is  said,  his 
devotion  to  music  caused  him  to  neglect  his 
duties  as  an  officer  and  he  was  discharged 
from  the  service.  He  retired  to  private  life 
and  finally  became  a  professional  musician. 
The  mother  of  Carl  Maria  was  his  second 
wife.  The  archives  of  the  Weimar  Theatre 
contain  several  letters  from  him,  in  one  of 
which  he  deplores  that  he  ever  left  Weimar, 
having  yielded  to  bad  advice,  and  in  another 
offers  to  sell  the  score  of  an  opera  composed 
by  his  young  son,  which  showed  great  talent. 
The  opera  was  "  Silvana. "  The  remainder 
of  the  operatic  list  during  the  year  under  con- 
sideration consisted  of  Mozart's  "Figaro," 
Dalayrac's  "The  Two  Savoyards,"  Gretry's 
"  Richard,  Cceur  de  Lion, "  Paisiello's  "  King 
Theodore  in  Venice, "  Cimarosa's  "  Die  verei- 
telte  Ranke, "  Anf ossi ' s  "  Circe, "  "  Das  Som- 
merfest  der  Braminen,"  by  Wenzel  Mueller, 
Martini's  "  Cosa  Rara"  (which  Mozart  hon- 
ored by  a  humorous  quotation  in  "Don 
Giovanni  "),  and  three  of  Dittersdorf's  clever 
musical  comedies. 

This  list   is  fairly  representative  of  the 

activities  of  small  theatres  at  the  time.     A 

study  of  the  programmes  of  the  year  1807, 

the    middle   of    Goethe's   term   as   Artistic 

2S9 


REFLECTIONS   IN   WEIMAR 

Director  of  the  Theatre,  shows  a  great 
improvement.  The  performances  are  more 
frequent,  the  list  more  ambitious,  the  novel- 
ties more  frequent,  and  the  character  of  the 
works  seems  to  indicate  a  most  marked  bet- 
terment of  the  interpreting  forces.  The 
chief  novelties  are  Paer's  "Camilla"  (May 
26),  Salieri's  "Palmira"  (May  31),  Mehul's 
"Treasure  Diggers"  (June  14),  and  Paer's 
"Die  Wegelagerer"  (December  19).  The 
fact  that  every  one  of  these  operas  has  dis- 
appeared from  the  stage  may  set  some  one 
to  reflecting  on  the  peculiar  mortality  of 
operas,  for  Paer,  Salieri  and  Mehul  belonged 
to  the  great  composers  of  their  age.  The 
other  composers  represented  in  the  year's 
list  were  Cimarosa,  Cherubini,  Martini, 
Schenck,  Delia  Maria,  Gaveaux,  Ditters- 
dorf,  Monsigny,  Winter,  Mozart  and  Wran- 
itzky,  whose  "  Oberon "  was  considered  a 
wonderful  romantic  opera  till  Weber's  came. 
In  the  last  year  of  the  Consulship  of  Goethe 
the  engagement  of  a  pair  of  Italian  singers 
led  to  the  performance  of  some  of  those  sin- 
gular pot-pourri  operas,  the  music  of  which 
was  put  together  more  or  less  deftly  by  the 
conductors  of  those  days.  Another  singular 
episode  is  the  appearance  on  the  list  of 
Maggie  Mitchell's  "Fanchon"  (with  an- 
260 


GOETHE  AND  LISZT 

other  woman  in  the  titular  r61e,  however) 
for  which  Himmel  had  written  the  music. 
In  this  period  falls  the  first  production  at 
Weimar  of  "Fidelio,"  which  took  place  on 
September  4,  1816,  the  companion  of  the 
Grand  Duke's  hours  of  recreation  being  the 
Leonore  of  the  occasion.  I  went  no  further 
than  the  programmes  to  learn  what  measure 
of  success  Beethoven's  opera  enjoyed.  It 
was  given  five  times  in  eight  months.  And 
Beethoven  is  set  down  as  a  "von"  instead  of 
a  "van"  on  the  programme.  Besides  Bee- 
thoven's the  names  of  Weigl,  Isouard,  Benda, 
Boi'eldieu,  Spontini,  appeared  in  company 
with  most  of  those  already  mentioned.  Then 
came  the  fatal  I2th  of  April,  1817,  and  Jage- 
mann's  effective  instrument  —  the  poodle. 

Goethe  could  not  approve  the  action  of  the 
Grand  Duke  who  opened  his  theatre  to  a 
poodle,  and  resigned.  That  was  the  end  of 
the  first  period  in  the  history  of  the  theatre 
which  made  Weimar  a  stopping  place  in  one 
of  my  musical  pilgrimages.  The  second 
period,  specifically  musical,  also  ended  with 
a  resignation.  This  time  the  Jagemann 
appears  to  have  been  Madame  Public  Taste, 
though  it  still  seems  a  mystery  how  after 
ten  years  of  such  training  as  Liszt  gave  the 
people  of  Weimar  they  could  have  been  deaf 
261 


REFLECTIONS   IN   WEIMAR 

to  the  beauties  of  Cornelius's  "Barber  of 
Bagdad."  There  is  a  comical  juxtaposition 
in  the  circumstance  that  a  career  which  began 
with  a  successful  production  of  "Martha  "  as 
a  novelty  should  have  ended  with  a  disas- 
trous production  of  "The  Barber."  There 
is  also,  doubtless,  a  chapter  of  unwritten 
history  somewhere  which  explains  Liszt's 
withdrawal  from  the  conduct  of  the  opera  at 
Weimar  more  satisfactorily  than  the  current 
accounts.  Herr  Pohl  has  rendered  unneces- 
sary any  detailed  account  of  Liszt's  activi- 
ties as  Court  Conductor  Extraordinary  at 
Weimar;  but  I  confess  that  the  evidences 
of  his  labors  surprised  me.  Never  was  the 
devotion  of  an  artist  to  high  ideals  more 
quickly  demonstrated,  never  was  liberality 
of  taste  more  generously  displayed,  never 
was  a  lofty  ideal  more  deeply  impressed 
upon  the  artistic  activities  of  an  institution 
than  in  the  case  of  Liszt's  career  in  Weimar. 
Scarcely  is  his  presence  announced,  as  the 
conductor  of  the  new  opera  "  Martha,"  before 
the  evidences  of  his  lofty  strivings  begin  to 
accumulate.  In  two  weeks  the  orchestral 
concerts  begin,  and  soon  the  entr' -actes  at 
the  plays  are  filled  with  high  class  musical 
performances. 


262 


INDEX 


INDEX 


ACCOMPANIED  recitative,  31. 

Aria  cantabile,  35. 

"  Achille,"  ii,  13,  32. 

Aria  d'agilita,  36. 

Achilles,  29. 

Aria  di  bravura,  36. 

Adams,  Mrs.  Mehitabel,  193. 
Addison,  23,  33,  34,  35. 
"  Adriano  in  Siria,"  32. 
Albertarelli,  singer,  77. 

Aria  di  mezzo  carattere,  35. 
Aria  di  note  e  parola,  36. 
Aria  di  portamento,  35. 
Aria  di  strepito,  36. 

"  Alceste,"  26. 

Aria  infuriata,  36. 

'•  Alcide,"  32. 

Aria  parlante,  36. 

"  Alcino,"  22. 

"  Ariodante,"  22. 

"  Alessandro,"  8,  9,  12,  32,  51. 

Ariosti,  composer,  22. 

"  Alfonso  and  Estrella,"  246. 

"  Armida,"3o. 

Allegri,  "  Miserere,"  184,  185. 

"  Arminio,"  22. 

Amorevoli,  singer,  14,  40,  50. 

Arne,  Dr.,  composer,  92. 

Amfhion   Thebas,  ego  domttm, 

Arnold,  Dr.,  composer,  63,  77. 

52- 

Arrigoni,  Carlo,  composer,  3,  14, 

Ancient  Music,  concerts  of,  63, 

22,  27. 

72. 

"  Arsace,"  27. 

Anderson,  Edward  Henry,  177. 

Artaria,  music  publisher,  229. 

Anderson,    Elbert   Ellery,    177, 

"  Artaserse,"  8,  9,   n,  21,  32, 

185. 

53.  92- 

Anderson,  Henry  James,  177. 

"  Atalanta,"  22. 

"  Andromaca,"  9. 

"  Attilio,"  32. 

Anfossi,  composer,  259. 

"  Antigone,"  32. 

BABBI,  singer,  14,  40,  49. 

Antis,  bishop  and  composer,  79. 

Bacchierotti,  singer,  77. 

Appianino,  singer,  14,  40,  49. 

3ach,  generic  name  for  Thurin- 

Apprentices  in  London,  76. 

gian  musicians,  131. 

Araia,  Francesco,  singer,  13. 

Jach,  Johann   Christian,  "the 

Archbishop   of    Salzburg,    138, 

English  Bach,"  97. 

139- 

Jach,  Johann,  Ernst,  247. 

Archbishop  of  London,  anecdote 

Jach,  Johann  Sebastian,  Spitta's 

of,  71. 

life  of,  192;  "  Well  Tempered 

Aria  agitata,  36. 

Clavichord,"  203. 

265 


INDEX 


Badini,  poet,  77. 

Bagnolese,  singer,  13,  40. 

Bangs,  Francis,  4. 

"  Barber  of  Bagdad,"  247,  262. 

Barbieri,  singer,  13,  40. 

Barck,  Miss,  singer,  77. 

Barry  more,  Lord,  81. 

Barthelemon,  Mr.,  64,  77,  83. 

Barthelemon,  Mrs.,  77. 

Barthelemon,  Miss,  78. 

Bassi,  Luigi,  singer,  159. 

Bass  singers  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  41. 

Baumgarten,  composer  in  Lon- 
don, 77. 

Baumgartner,  conductor  at  Co- 
vent  Garden,  86. 

Bayreuth  festivals,  116,  147. 

Beethoven,  Mrs.  Carl  van,  202, 
204,  205,  206. 

Beethoven,  Caspar  Anton  Carl 
van,  brother  of  the  composer, 
226. 

Beethoven,  Haus  Verein,  221, 
230. 

Beethoven,  Johann  van,  father 
of  the  composer,  219,  227. 

Beethoven,  Louis  van,  grand- 
father of  the  composer,  215, 
219,  227. 

Beethoven,  Ludwig  van,  58,  78, 
131,  134,  144,  149,  161;  an- 
ecdotes of,  196  et  seq.;  meets 
a  friend  from  Bonn,  196  ;  the 
kettledrums  in  the  seventh 
symphony,  197;  his  favorite 
symphony,  196;  the  Karnth- 
nerthor  orchestra,  197  ;  Rust's 
anecdote,  198;  Schindler's  de- 
votion, 198 ;  Hozalka's  anec- 
dote, 198;  appreciation  of 
Mozart,  199,  208  ;  his 
wine  bill,  199;  Salis's  anec- 


dote, 200;  offers  marriage 
to  a  singer,  200 ;  meeting 
with  Mahler,  200 ;  his  piano- 
forte playing,  201 ;  the  ab- 
sent bassoon  player,  201; 
anger  at  Prince  Lobkowitz,  20; 
plays  the  "Well  Tempered 
Clavichord,"  203;  disorder  in 
his  room,  203 ;  death  of,  204  ; 
courtesy  to  Himmel,  205 ; 
under  arrest,  206 ;  intercourse 
with  Cipriani  Potter,  208 ; 
opinion  of  Mozart  and  Handel, 
208 ;  appreciation  of  Cheru- 
bini,  208  ;  admiration  for  Eng- 
land, 208;  opinion  of  Mosche- 
les,  209  ;  uses  a  bootjack  on  his 
pianoforte,  209  ;  antipathy  to 
being  overheard,  209 ;  his 
deafness,  210,  226,  233  ;  his 
biographer  Thayer,  189  et 
seq.,  192,  212  et  seq. ;  tem- 
perance at  table,  209 ;  birth- 
place, 213  et  seq.  ;  museum 
at  Bonn,  203,  212  et  seq. ; 
monument  at  Bonn,  220;  por- 
traits of,  228  ;  his  "  im- 
mortal beloved,"  228 ;  his 
mother,  223  et  seq. ;  piano- 
forte, 231 ;  ear  trumpets,  231 ; 
position  in  musical  history, 
233  et  seq. ;  "  Fidelio,"  197, 
201,  210,  261;  "Eroica" 
symphony,  196,  200,  238;  C 
minor  symphony,  197;  seventh 
symphony,  197,  238;  ninth 
symphony,  238;  "Welling- 
ton's Victory,"  208,  232; 
pianoforte  concertos,  C  minor 
and  E  flat,  211. 

Beaumarchais,  165. 

Beckenkamp,    Casper,   painter, 


227. 


266 


INDEX 


"  Begehre  nicht  ein   Gliick  zu 

gross,"  80. 

Belderbusch,  minister,  226. 
Benda,  composer,  77,  261. 
"  Benvenuto  Cellini,"  246. 
"  Berenice,"  22. 
Berger,  Freiherr  von,  125. 
Berlioz,  Hector,  74,  248. 
Bernacchi,  singing  teacher,  42. 
Bernasconi,  Andrea,  singer,  14, 

25,  26. 
Bernasconi,  Antonia,  singer,  26, 

27. 

Bertolli,  singer,  14,  40. 
Beyle,  Henri,  66. 
Bianchi,  Bianca,  singer,  154. 
Billington,   Mrs.,  65,  66,  67,  77, 

86. 

Biswanger,  Herr,  59. 
Blake,  Lady,  63. 
Blake,  Sir  Patrick,  85. 
Bland,  Mrs.,  singer,  77. 
Blumb,  Mr.,  78. 
Boi'eldieu,  261. 
Bombet,  L.  A.  C.,  pseudonym, 

67- 

Borghi,  violinist,  78. 
Born,  Baroness.  198. 
Brandt-Forster,  Ella,  singer, 

144,  145;  '54,  158- 
Brassey,  London  banker,  83,  94. 
Breuning  family,  230. 
Breuning,  Dr.  Gerhard  von,  204, 

206. 

Breuning,  Stephen  von,  204. 
Bright,  E.,  7. 
Brignt,  John,  8. 
Bright,  Richard,  7,  8. 
British  Nobility,  opera  of  the, 

21,  22. 

Broschi,  Carlo  (Farinelli),  27. 
Broschi,  Riccardo,  14.  25,  27. 
Brunswick,  Countess,  228. 


Buononcini,  composer,  17,  19, 

21,  22. 
Burney,  Dr.  Charles,  24,  26,  27, 

2g,  3°.  3',  33,  37,  46,  47,  5°, 

77,  194- 

Burney,  Mrs.,  pianist,  77. 
Byrom,  John,  19,  21. 
Byron,  Lord,  161. 

CADENZA,  sung   by  Farinelli, 

52;  by  Tesi,  48. 
Caffarelli,  singer,  48,  50,  51. 
Calcagni,  singer  in  London,  77. 
Calvesi,  singer  in  London,  79. 
Cambridge,  University  of,  85. 
"  Camilla,"  260. 
Campo,  Marquis  del,  79. 
Capelletti,    singer    in    London, 

77- 

Capua,  30. 

Capuzinerberg,  138,  139. 
Carestini,  8,  9,  n,  22,  40,  51. 
Carter,  composer  in  London,  77. 
Carpani,  "  Le  Haydine/'  66. 
Gary,  Annie  Louise,  4. 
Casentini,  singer  in  London,  79. 
Caspar,  Wenzelaus,  Elector  of 

Treves,  224. 

Castelcicala,  Prince  de,  79. 
Catherine  II.,  of  Russia,  24. 
"  Catone,"  8,  9,  12,  27,  32. 
Celestina,  singer,  13,  40. 
Celestini,  singer,  77. 
Ceneda,  Bishop  of,  164. 
Charity  Children,  singing  of,  73, 

74- 

harles  Augustus,   Grand  Duke 
of  Weimar,  244,  248,  251,  253. 

-herubini,  208,  260. 
hesterfield,  Lord,  54. 

Dhoris,  singer  in  London,  77. 

Cimarosa,  259,  260. 

:  Circe,"  259. 


267 


INDEX 


"  Giro  riconosciuto,"  n,  32. 
Claremont,  Lord,  91. 
Clarence,  Duke  of,  93. 
Clemens   Augustus,   Elector  of 

Cologne,  215,  224,  225. 
Clement,  violinist,  77,  78. 
dementi,  77. 

"Clemenza  di  Tito,"  8,  32. 
Cleveland,  Grover,  President  of 

the  United  States,  193. 
Colloredo,  Hieronymus,  150. 
Columbia  College,  174. 
Composers  in  London,  77. 
Concerts  of  Ancient  Music,  63, 

72- 

"Contesa  de'  Numi,"  10,  38. 

Conti,  Gioacchino,  50,  (also  see 
Giziello). 

Contralto  voice  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  46. 

Cornelius,  Peter  von,  247,  262. 

Corri,  Miss,  84. 

"Cosi  fan  tutte,"  146,  161. 

Covent  Garden  Theatre,  86. 

Cramer,  J.  B.,  75. 

Cramer,  William,  63,  77,  78. 

"Creation,"  The,  58. 

Crouch,  Mrs.,  singer  in  London, 
77- 

Cuzzoni,  singer,  9,  12,  22,  40, 
43.  44,  45>  5°;  her  rivalry 
with  Faustina,  43 ;  Handel's 
threat,  44. 

DALAYRAC,  "  The  Two  Savoy- 
ards," 259. 

Danhauser,  Joseph,  sculptor, 
230. 

Da  Ponte,  Lorenzo,  his  aim  in 
"Don  Giovanni,"  156;  in 
New  York,  1 59  et  seq. ;  career 
of,  161  et  seq.;  not  a  poet 
laureate,  161 ;  his  grave  un- 


known, 162 ;  arrival  in  Amer- 
ica, 163,  1 66;  born  a  Jew, 
164;  indecent  attack  on,  169; 
arrival  in  New  York,  171 ; 
business  ventures  of,  171  ; 
residences  in  New  York,  1 73  ; 
becomes  professor  at  Colum- 
bia College,  174;  transactions 
with  the  College,  175,  179; 
death  and  burial  of,  132,  160, 
163,  184;  appearance  of,  185  ; 
autobiography  of,  164;  "  Com- 
pendium," 167;  "Frottola 
per  far  ridere,"  180,  186; 
"  Storia  Americana,"  181; 
"  Tree  of  Diana,"  181. 

Da  Ponte,  Lorenzo,  Bishop  of 
Ceneda,  164. 

Da  Ponte,  Lorenzo  L.,  171. 

Dassie,  artist  in  London,  91. 

"  Das  Sommerfest  der  Brami- 
nen,"  259. 

Davide,  singer,  77. 

Davis,  Signorina,  singer,  77. 

"  Deidama,"  21. 

Deiters,  Dr.  H.,  194. 

De  la  Valle,  Mrs.,  79. 

Delia  Maria,  260. 

"  Demetrio,"  8,  30. 

"  Demofoonte,"  9,  32. 

Devonshire,  Duchess  of,  73. 

"  Didone,"  12,  32,  71. 

Dies,  biographer  of  Haydn,  95, 

99- 

"  Die  Entfiihrung  aus  dem 
Serail,"  46,  258. 

"  Die  vereitelte  Ranke,"  259. 

"  Die  Wegelagerer,"  260. 

Dittenhoffer,  composer  in  Lon- 
don, 77. 

Dittersdorf,  Carl  Ditters  von, 
134,  259,  260. 

Dobson,  Austin,  3,  4,  6,  12,  15. 


268 


INDEX 


Doctors  of  Music  in  London,  77. 

"  Dog  of  Aubri  de  Mont- 
Didier,"  the,  252,  254. 

Dom  Musikverein  in  Salzburg, 
144. 

"  Don  Carlos,"  250. 

"  Don  Giovanni,"  143,  144,  149, 
»54,  155.  '59.  i6i|  165,  178, 
199,  250,  255,  258,  259. 

Dorelli,  singer  in  London,  77. 

Dresden  opera,  46,  50. 

Dresden  Tonkiinstlerverein,  159. 

Duprez,  at  the  Charity  Chil- 
dren's concert,  75. 

Dupuis,  Dr.,  63,  77. 

Durastanti,  singer,  50. 

Dussek,  77. 

"  EGERIA,"  33. 
Egiziello  (Giziello),  n. 
Ende-Andriessen,  154. 
England,  national  debt  of,  62. 
Eppinger,  Dr.  Joseph,  203. 
Ernst  Augustus,  Grand  Duke  of 

Weimar,  247. 
"  Eroe,"  32. 

EssipofT,  Madame,  146,  149. 
Esterhazy,  Prince,  86. 
"  Euryanthe,"  258. 
"  Ezio,"  29,  32. 

"  FANCHON,"  260. 
Farfallino,  singer,  9,  40,  50. 
Farinelli,  singer,  8,  9, 12,  13,  14, 
22,  27,  28,  34,  40,  43,  48,  49, 

5'.  52- 

"Farnace,"  12. 
"  Faust,"  Goethe's,  250. 
Faustina,   singer,    8,  9,  13,  28, 

4°>  43>44,  45- 

Felix,  violinist  in  London,  78. 
Felix,  Benedikt,  singer,  155. 
Fenelon,  226. 


Ferri,  skill  of,  34. 

F^tis,  37,  97,  98. 

"Fidelio,"  78,  197,  201,210, 
261. 

Fini,  Michele,  12,  14,  25,  26. 

Fischer,  oboist  in  London,  78. 

Fischer,  Caecilia,  219. 

Fischer,  Gottfried,  219,  231. 

Fleming,  Marjorie,  97. 

Forgery,  now  punished  in  Eng- 
land, 70. 

Forster,  Gustav,  130. 

"  For  unto  us,"  64. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  72. 

Fox,  Jabez,  194. 

Fox,  Mrs.  Jabez,  195,  203. 

Francesco,  Carlo,  165. 

Francis,  Dr.  J.  W.,  184,  186. 

Frederickson,  Charles  W.,  4,  8. 

"  Freischiitz,"  258. 

Freny,  Rudolf,  opera  singer, 
154. 

Friderici,  composer  in  London, 

77- 
Frike,  composer  in  London,  77. 

GALUPPI,  3,  14,  22,  23,  24,  26, 

27,  3«>  32- 

Galvani  and  Beethoven,  200. 

Game,  prices  of,  in  London,  72. 

Garcia,  Manuel,  177. 

Gaveaux,  260. 

"  Genoveva,"  246. 

Genziger,  Mrs.,  59. 

George  I.,  King  of  England,  20. 

German  singers  and  Mozart's 
music,  155. 

"  Gerusalemme  liberata,"  30. 

Giacomelli,  9,  25,  27. 

Giaii,  Antonio,  9,  13,  25. 

Giardini,  71,  78. 

Giornowichi,  violinist  in  Lon- 
don, 78. 


269 


INDEX 


Girowetz,  composer  in  London, 

77- 

"  Giustino,"  22. 
Giziello,  singer,  n,  22,  40,  50, 

Gluck,  26,  32. 

"  God  save  the  King,"  91. 

Goethe,  98,  134;  his  influence  in 
Weimar,  243  et  seq. ;  and 
Shakespeare,  249  ;  quarrel 
with  Herder,  251  ;  episode 
with  a  poodle,  251, 261 ;  admi- 
ration for  Corona  Schroeter, 
255  ;  "On  the  death  of  Mied- 
ling,"  256. 

"  Gott  im  Herz,"  80. 

Graf,  pianoforte  maker,  231. 

Graff,  musician  in  London,  77, 
78. 

Gray,  Thomas,  his  musical  col- 
lection, 3  et  seq. ;  his  taste, 
15;  his  singing,  17;  as  a 
harpsichord  player,  17  ;  inter- 
est in  opera,  200. 

Gre'try,  259. 

Grillparzer,  recollections  of 
Beethoven,  209 ;  relations 
with  Beethoven,  209. 

Grosdill,  violincellist  in  London, 

77- 
Grove,  Sir  George,  dedication, 

25,27,29,97,  166,  202. 
Guglielmi,      "  La      Pastorella 

nobile,"  79. 

Guicciardi,  Countess,  228. 
Guildhall,  59. 
Guttenbrun,  painter  in  London, 

91. 
Guy  Fawkes  Day,  81. 

"  HALLELUJAH  "    chorus,    64, 

83,  89. 
Handel,  18,  19,  21,  22,  27,  29, 


30,   42,   43,  50,  51,   76;    his 

operatic  ventures,  20  et  seq. ; 

and  Cuzzoni,  44  ;  and  Tesi, 

46  ;     his    bass    singers,    41  ; 

Commemoration,      82,     83  ; 

admired  by  Beethoven,  208 ; 

"  Jephtha,"  18. 
"  Hannibal."  29,  30. 
Hardy,  painter  in  London,  91. 
"  Harmony    in    an     Uproar," 

27. 
Harrington,  oboist  in   London, 

78. 

Harrison,  singer  in  London.  77. 
Hartman,   flautist    in    London, 

79- 

Hasse,  Johann  Adolf,  8,  9,  13, 
17,  21,  28,  31,  32,  33,  41,  45, 

48,  S2,  53- 

Hastings,  Warren,  64. 

Hauser,  Anna,  155. 

Haydn,  in  London.  55  et  seq. ; 
his  note-books,  57  et  seq.  ; 
"Creation,"  58  ;  his  descrip- 
tion of  the  Lord  Mayor's  din- 
ner, 59  ;  gifts  for  friends,  59  ; 
description  of  the  races,  67; 
at  Charity  Children's  concert, 
73 ;  his  description  of  Vaux- 
hall  Gardens,  76 ;  visits  the 
Duke  of  York,  84 ;  visits  Cam- 
bridge University,  85  ;  records 
Mozart's  death,  87  ;  describes 
Haymarket  Theatre,  88  ; 
visits  Oxford  University,  88, 
89  ;  canon,  "  Thy  Voice,  O 
harmony,"  89;  bled  in  Lon- 
don, 89 ;  visit  to  Mr.  Shaw, 
89 ;  trip  on  the  Thames,  89  ; 
concerts  in  London,  91 ;  por- 
traits of,  91  ;  purchases  for 
friends,  92 ;  his  English  IOTC, 
95  ;  love  letters  to,  95  et  seq. ; 


270 


INDEX 


his  wife,  96 ;  tempo  of  Ins 
minuets,  149;  his  birth-place, 
213  ;  symphony  in  D,  84, 
90  ;  symphony  in  B  flat,  90. 

Haymarket  Theatre  in  London, 
20,  71,  88. 

Hellmesberger  Quartet,  146. 

Herder,  244,  250,  251. 

Herschel,  Dr.,  64. 

Herzog,  theatrical  director  in 
Vienna,  207. 

Hess,  Mus.  Doc.  in  London,  77. 

Heygendorf,  Frau  von,  253. 

"  Hide  me  from  day's  garish 
eye,"  19. 

Hillisbury,  dancer   in   London, 

79- 

Himmel,  composer,  205,  261. 

Hindmarsh,  violinist  in  Lon- 
don, 77. 

Hiifel,  Blasius,  206,  229. 

Hogarth  on  the  opera  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  35. 

Hohensalzburg,  117. 

Hoppner,  painter  in  London, 
91. 

"  How  to  listen  to  Music,"  34. 

Hozalka's  anecdote  of  Bee- 
thoven, 198. 

Hiillmandl,  composer  in  Lon- 
don, 77,  78. 

Hiittenbrenner,  Anselm,  his  ac- 
count of  Beethoven's  death, 
203. 

Hummel,  J.  F.,  125,   144,  145, 

«55- 

Hummel,  J.  N.,  78,  213. 
Hungarian  Gypsy  bands,  n. 
Hunter,  surgeon  in  London,  62. 


"  Hydaspes,"  33. 
IMAGINATION,  Ruskin  on  the, 

271 


"  lo  vi   mando  questo  foglio," 

75- 

"  Ipermestra,"  32. 
"  Iphigenia,"  250. 
Isouard,  261. 
"  Issipile,"  8. 
Italian  basses,  lack  of,  42. 

JAGEMANN,  Fraulein,  252,  261. 

Jahn,  Otto,  192. 

Jahn,  Wilhelm,  120,  143,    148, 

158. 
Jansa,  Miss,  pianist  in  London, 

78. 
Jarowez,   violinist  in    London, 

78. 

"Jephtha,"  18. 
Joachim,  Joseph,  223. 
Jomelli,  31. 
Jones's  Chant,  74. 
Jordan,  Dora,  93. 
Joseph     Clemens,    Elector    of 

Cologne,  215,  225. 
Joseph  II.,  of  Austria,  165,  181. 

KAULICH,  Louise,  singer,  144, 

154. 

Kees,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  von,  59,  92. 
Kelly,  Michael,  63,  64,  66,  77, 

187. 

"  Kenne  Gott,"  a  canon,  So. 
Kettledrummer,  anecdote  of,  72. 
Keverich,     Maria     Magdalena, 

227. 

"  King  Alfred,"  246. 
"  King  of  Arragon,"  27. 
"  King   Theodore  in   Venice," 

259. 
King's  Theatre,  London,  20,  21. 


239- 


Klein,  Franz,  sculptor,  229. 
Kranz,   conductor   in    Weimar, 

255. 
I  Krenn,  musikdirektor,  196. 


INDEX 


Krolop,  Franz,  singer,  154. 
Krumpholz  and  wife,  78,  79. 
Kuffner,  Hofrath,  196. 
Kuppe,  William,  221. 

LABORDE,  26. 

"  Lacrymosa,"  125,  126. 

Lampugnani,  13,  15,  22,  25,  27. 

Latilla,  9,  15,  24,  25,  26. 

La  Trobe,  composer  in  London, 

77- 

Latronne,  painter,  229. 
Laym,  Johanu,  227. 
Lazarini,  singer  in  London,  77, 

79- 

Leeds,  Duke  of,  59. 
Lehmann,  Marie  and  Lilli,  154. 
Lenn6,  Peter,  196. 
Lenz,  pianist  in  London,  78. 
Leo,  Leonardo,  n,  16,  17,  28, 

32. 
Leopold,   Emperor  of  Austria, 

166. 

Lichnowsky,  Prince,  78. 
Ligi,  Celestino,  14,  27. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  President  of 

the  United  States,  193. 
Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  21. 
Linnaeus,  "  Systema  Naturae," 

3- 

Liszt,  his  influence  in  Weimar, 
243  et  seq. 

Livington  family,  174. 

Lobkowitz,  Prince,  Beethoven's 
friend,  201. 

Lockhart,  75. 

"  Lohengrin,"  246. 

Lolli,  oboist  in  London,  78. 

London,  composers  in,  77  ;  con- 
sumption of  coal  by,  70 ; 
Doctors  of  Music  in,  77;  fog, 
93;  houses  built  in,  70-81; 
deaths  in,  in  1791,  75  ;  oboists 


in,  78 ;    pianists  in,   77,   78 ; 

singers  in,  77  ;  street-cleaning, 

89 ;     violinists    in,    77,    78 ; 

violoncellists    in,    77  ;     Lord 

Mayor's  dinner,  59. 
Lops,  singer  in  London,  77. 
Lorenzino,  40,  50. 
Louis,  Dauphin  of  France,  10. 
Louis  XV.,  of  France,  10. 
Louis  XVI.,  of  France,  10. 
Lully,  his  overture  form,  n. 
Lyser,  portrait    of    Beethoven, 

231. 


MACAULAY,  235. 

Macneven,  Dr.,  184,  185. 

Maelzel,  231,  233. 

Maffei.  singer  in  London,  77,  78. 

"Magic  Flute,"  116,  138,   144, 

5.  153.  *99,  258. 
Mahler,  J.  W.,  200,  201.  231. 
Male  sopranos  and   contraltos, 

42. 

Malibran,  177. 

Manzuoli,  Giovanni.  14,  40,  49. 
Mara,  'cellist,  63,  77. 
Mara,  Madame,  63,  71.  77,  89. 
Marcello,  Benedetto,  16. 
Marches!,  Signor,  82. 
Marchetti,  23. 
Maria  Theresa,  214. 
Marie  Antoinette,  166. 
Marionet  Theatre,  91. 
Marlborough,  Duke  of,  225. 
Maroncelli,  185. 

Vlarriage  customs  in  London,  85. 
'  Marriage  of  Figaro,"  120,  125, 

142,  143,  150,  154,  155,   156, 

157,  161,  187,  259. 
'  Martha,"  262. 
Martini,  181,  258,  259,  260. 
Hason,  Lowell,  193. 


272 


INDEX 


Mason,  the  Rev.  William,  7,  16, 
18,  19. 

Mayer,  Frederike,  singer,  146. 

Mazini,  composer,  77. 

Mazzanti,  singer  in  London,  77. 

Mazzoni,  composer,  14,  25. 

Mehul,  "  The  Treasure  Dig- 
gers," 260. 

Mendel's  German  Lexicon,  31. 

Mendelssohn,  149. 

Menel,  'cellist  in  London,  77. 

"  Messiah,"  The,  64. 

Metastasio,  poet,  10,  32,  33,  36. 

Meyerbeer,  32. 

Michelangelo,  245. 

Milk,  how  preserved,  83. 

Mingotti,  28. 

Minuets  at  Lord  Mayor's  din- 
ner, 60. 

Minuet,  tempo  of,  149. 

Mitchell,  Maggie,  American 
actress,  260. 

Mitford,  the  Rev.  John,  16,  18. 

"  Mitridate,"  26. 

Monchsberg,  the,  139. 

Monsigny,  260. 

Montagnana,  22. 

Montagu,  Lady  Mary  Wortley, 

54- 

Monticelli,  12,  40,  51. 
Montressor,  178. 
Moore,    Clement    Clarke,    174, 

180,  185. 
Moravian   clergyman,   anecdote 

of.  7'. 

Morelli,  singer,  77. 
M.^cheles,  Beethoven's  opinion 

of,  209. 

Motley,  John  Lothrop,  193. 
Motzert  family,  129. 
Mozart,  Carl,  129. 
Mozart,  Leopold,  136,  139. 
Mozart,  Marie  Anna,  130. 


Mozart,  Wolfgang  Amadeus,  26, 
32;  and  Manzuoli,  49;  part- 
ing with  Haydn,  87;  cente- 
nary of  his  death,  113  et  seq. ; 
music  at,  142  ;  birth-place,  119, 
136;  death  and  burial  of,  87, 

125,  131,  160,  184  ;  his  music 
slowly  appreciated,   134;  rel- 
ics of,  at  Salzburg,  134 ;  his 
poverty,    135;    his  clavichord 
and  pianoforte,  135,  136;  his 
"  Wohnhaus,"  139  ;  domestic 
life.  128  ;  descendants  of,  128  ; 
widow,  130,  132;  Beethoven's 
appreciation,    198,    199,  208 ; 
Viennese  performances  of  his 
music,  146;  the  spirit  of  his 
music,  148 ;  German  singers 
and  his  music,   155  ;  Jahn's 
biography,  192  ;  his  operas  in 
Weimar,  250,  254,  260  ;  "  Re- 
quiem," 116,   118,   121,    125, 

126,  142,  143,  144,  145-  '53: 
"  Jupiter  "    symphony,    143, 
146,  148,  149 ;  G  minor  sym- 
phony, 143,  148 ;  operas,  see 
"  Cosi  fan  tutte,"  "  Die  Ent- 
fiihrung,"   "  Don   Giovanni," 
"Marriage  of    Figaro,"    and 
"  Magic   Flute  ;  "    pianoforte 
concerto    in    D    minor,    146, 
149  ;  quartet  in  D  minor,  146; 
quintet    in    G    minor,    146 ; 
"  Bundeslied,"  141  ;  "  Vergiss 
Mein     Nicht,"    146;     "Das 
Veilchen,"    146;    "O  Isis," 
146 ;      Pamina's     air,     146 ; 
"  Dies    Bildniss,"  146;    "  In 
diesen  heil'gen  Hallen,"  146; 
"  Wiegenlied,"  146;  "  Porge 
amor,"  155- 

Mozart,  W.  A.,  son,  128, 
129. 


273 


INDEX 


Mozarteum  in  Salzburg,  115, 
144,  145,  155. 

Mueller,  Wenzel,  "  Das  Som- 
merfest,"  259. 

Murder,  how  punished  in  Lon- 
don, 70. 

Music,  its  relationship  to  the 
other  arts,  235. 

Musical  tradition,  147. 

Musico,  the,  42. 

NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE,  161, 

1 80. 
Neate,  Charles,  and  Beethoven, 

230. 
Neesen,  portrait  of  Beethoven, 

210,  211. 

Negri,  singer  in  London,  77. 
Nicolai,  Royal  Chamberlain  and 

composer,  79. 
Nicolini,  singer,  33,  34. 
Nissen,  G.  N.  von,    130,    132, 

137- 

"Nitetti,"  32. 

Nobilita  Britannica,  opera   of, 

21,  22. 
"  No  more  to  Ammon's  God," 

18. 
Noyan,  a  drink,  93. 

OATLANDS,  Castle,  84. 

"Oberon,"  260. 

Oboists  in  London,  78. 

Old  Hundredth  Psalm,  75. 

"  Olimpiade,"  n,  12,  13,  32. 

Opera,  artificiality  of,  35. 

Operatic  formula  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  36. 

Operatic  lovers,  42. 

Operatic  singing  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  34. 

Oranges  from  Portugal,  93. 

Orlandini,  13,  14,  25. 


"  Orlando  Furioso,"  30. 
Ott,  painter  in  London,  Si,  91. 
Oulibischeff,  163. 
Oxford,  University  of,  85. 

PAGET,  Violet,  23. 

Paer,  Ferdinand,  260. 

Paisiello,  259. 

Palestrina,  16,  18. 

"  Palmira,"  260. 

Pantheon  Theatre,  burned,  70. 

"Partenope,"  33. 

"  Pastorella  nobile,"  79.  • 

Pellico,  185. 

Pembroke,  Countess,  45. 

Perez,  David,  9,  15,  29. 

Pergolese,  3,  9,  12,  13,  16,  28, 

51- 

"  Per  questo  dolce  amplesso," 

53- 

Pertici,  26. 
Peterborough,  Lord  and  Lady, 

54- 

Petrarch,  174,  179. 
Philharmonic  Society  of  Vienna, 

120,  124,  143,  147. 
Philip  V.,  of  Spain,  53. 
Pianists  in  London,  77,  78. 
Piccini,  26,  31. 
Pistocchi,  42. 

Pitt,  Prime  Minister,  59,  61. 
Pleyel,  Ignaz,  79,  88. 
Pohl.C.  F.,  57,  58,  63,  67,  84, 

95- 

Pohl,  R.,  262. 
Polignac,  Marquis  de,  10. 
Pool,    Miss,  singer  in  London, 

77- 

Porpora,  21,  22,  42. 
Potter,  Cipriani,  and  Beethoven, 

208. 

Prescott,  W.  H.,  174. 
Price,  Mr.,  18. 


274 


INDEX 


Prince  of  Wales,  82,  84. 
Professional  concerts,  72,  76,  88. 
Punch,  Prince  of  Wales's,  82. 
Purcell,  72. 

QUAKERS  and  the  king's  tax, 

82. 
Queen's  Theatre,  20. 

RAFF,  Joachim,  "  King  Alfred," 

246. 
Raimondi,'  violinist  in  London, 

78. 

Raymond,  Mrs.  C.  M.,  4. 
Recitative,  accompanied,  31. 
Rees's  Encyclopaedia,  97,  98. 
Regole  per  1'accompagnamento, 

3.  12- 
Reichenberg,  Franz,  singer,  144, 

146. 

Reichmann,  Theodor,  154. 
Reimschneider,  bass,  41,42. 
Reinhold,  bass,  41. 
"  Re  pastore,"  32. 
Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  66,  67. 
"  Richard,  Cceur  de  Lion,"  259. 
Richter,  Hans,  154. 
Ries,  Ferdinand,  196. 
"  Rinaldo,"  30,  34. 
Rinaldo  di   Capua,  14,  28,  29, 

30,  37. 

Ritter,  F.  L.,  167. 
Ritter,  Josef,  singer,  145,  154. 
Rivafinoli,    opera    manager    in 

New  York,  178. 
"  Robbers,"  The,  250. 
Robinson,  Anastasia,  singer,  54. 
"  Rodelinda,"  12,  44. 
"  Romolo  ed  Ersilio,"  33. 
Roschi,  basso,  41. 
Rossi,  librettist,  32. 
Rossini,  32,  134,  156,  157. 
Royal  Society  of  Musicians,  63. 


"  Ruggiero,"  33. 
Ruskin,  John,  3,  239. 
Rust,  Wilhelm,  198. 

SACCHINI,  31. 

Saint  Peter,  picture  of,  71. 

Salieri,  134,  165,  181 ;  "  Pal- 
mira," 260. 

Salis,  anecdote  of  Beethoven,  200. 

Salomon,  72,  76,  77,  87,  88,  91. 

Salterio,  n. 

Salzach,  the,  139. 

Salzburg,  115,  118,  136;  Lieder- 
tafel,  146 ;  description  of, 
137  ;  Royal  Imperial  Theatre, 
150. 

Sarro,  Domenico,  13,  25,  32. 

Sarti,  71. 

Sassarelli,  singer,  34. 

Sassone,  il  (Hasse),  8,  9,  13,  28. 

Scalzi,  singer,  12,  40,  50. 

Scarlatti,  A.,  31. 

Scarlatti,  D.,  17,  22. 

Scheener,  violinist  in  London, 
78. 

Schenck,  260. 

Schiassi,  Yaetano,  14,  25,  27. 

Schiller,  204,  244,  245,  254. 

Schindler,  Anton,  204,  209. 

Schinotti,  singer  in  London,  77. 

Schmidt,  Victor,  155. 

Schnittenhelm,  Anton,  155. 

Schroeter,  Corona  Elizabeth 
Wilhelmine,  98,  255. 

Schroeter,  Johann  Heinrich,  98. 

Schroeter,  Johann  Samuel,  97. 

Schroeter,  Mistress,  62 ;  love 
letters  to  Haydn,  95  et  seq. 

Schubert,  Franz,  161 ;  "  Alfon- 
so and  Estrella,"  246. 

Schumann,  R.,  "  Genoveva," 
246. 

Schwanthaler,  sculptor,  128, 131. 


275 


INDEX 


Scott,  Sir  Walter,  97,  161. 
Scramb,  'cellist  in  London,  77. 
Seconda,  singer  in  London,  77, 

78. 

Selitti,  composer,  14,  25. 
"  Semiramide,"  9,  32. 
Senesino,  singer,  9,  13,  22,  34, 

4°,  43,  5X>  54- 

Serra,  violinist  in  London,  78. 

Sex  in  singers,  41. 

Seyfried,  Ignaz  von,  197. 

Shaw,  Mr.,  visited  by  Haydn, 
89. 

Shield,  composer  in  London,  77. 

"Siface,"  32. 

"  Silvana,"  259. 

Silvester,  advocate  and  alder- 
man, 59. 

Silvester  Chamberlain,  63. 

Simoni,  singer  in  London,  77. 

Singers  in  London,  77. 

Singers  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 40  et  seq. 

"  Siroe,"  8,  9,  12. 

Sonnenburg,  Baroness  von,  130. 

Sontag,  Henrietta,  249. 

Sperati,  'cellist  in  London,  77. 

Spitta,  Philipp,"  Life  of  Bach," 
192. 

"Sponsali  d'Enea,"  26. 

Spontini,  261. 

"Stabat  Mater,"  12. 

Stadion,  Count  de,  79. 

Stanhope,  Lord,  54. 

Staudigl,  Jos.,  singer,  154. 

Steele,  R.,  23,  33. 

Stein,  pianoforte  maker,  209. 

Stonehewer,  Richard,  7,  8. 

Storace,  63,  77. 

Strada,  singer,  n,  14,   22,   40, 

43- 

Strauss,  Richard,  25. 
Sumner,  Charles,  senator,  193. 


Sussmayr,  126. 
Swift,  Dean,  19. 

"  TASSO,"  250. 

Taylor,  opera  manager  in  Lon- 
don, 1 66. 

Telscher,  artist,  204. 

"  Temistocle,"  12,  13,  33. 

Tenor  singers,  41. 

Tesi,  singer,  8,  u,  12,  13,  40, 
43,  46  et  seq. 

Thayer,  Alexander  W.,  58  ;  191 
et  seg.;  birth,  192;  gradua- 
tion, 192;  with  United  States 
Legation  in  Vienna,  193;  ap- 
pointed Consul  at  Trieste, 
193 ;  member  of  the  staff  of  the 
"New  York  Tribune,"  193; 
works  in  the  library  of  Har- 
vard College,  193 ;  catalogues 
Lowell  Mason's  library,  193; 
removed  from  consulship, 
194;  "  Chronologisches  Ver- 
zeichniss,"  194;  his  note- 
books, 195  et  seq. ;  biography 
of  Beethoven,  202,  212. 

Theft,  how  punished  in  Eng- 
land, 70. 

Tipping,  in  Austria,  123. 

"  Tito  Manlio,"  12. 

Tomich,  composer  in  London, 

77- 

"  Treasure  Diggers,"  260. 
"  Tree  of  Diana,"  258. 
"  Trionfo  di  Clelia,"  33. 
Tuckerman,   H.   T.,   166,   184, 

1 86. 

Turcotti,  singer,  12,  14.  40. 
Twain.  Mark,  244. 
"  'T  was     the     Night    Before 

Christmas,"  174.' 


"UNA  COSARARA,"  259. 


276 


THE  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSE  OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


INDEX 


VAUXHALL,  76. 

Veracini,  composer,  22. 

Verdi,  23. 

Verein    Beethoven-Haus,    221, 

230. 

Verplanck,  Giulain  C.,  184,  185. 
Viardot-Gartia,  159. 
Vienna,  Mozart's  music  in,  146. 
Vinci,  Leonardo,  9,  17,  22,  29, 

32-  37- 
Vinci,   Leonardo  da,  37  ;   "  Di- 

done  abbandonata,"  39. 
"  Viol  de  gamboys,"  38. 
Violinists  in  London,  77,  78. 
Violoncellists  in  London,  77. 
Viscontina,  singer,  12,  40. 
Vogler,  Johann  Casper,  248. 
"Vologeso,"  30. 

WAGNER,  Richard,  147,  154 ; 
festival  in  Bayreuth,  116;  on 
minuet  tempo,  149;  "Lohen- 
grin," 246. 

Waldendorf,  Baroness,  224. 

Wales,  Prince  of,  68,  82,  84. 

Walpole,  Horace,  3,  15,  18,  21, 
24. 

Walpole,  Sir  Robert,  45. 

Walter,  Gustav,  singer,  144,  146. 

Waltz,  basso,  41. 

Ward,  Samuel.  185,  186. 

Weber,  Carl  Maria  von,  mother 
of,  258  ;  "  Freischiitz,"  258  ; 


"  Euryanthe,"     258  ;     "  Sil- 
vana,"  259;  "  Oberon,"  260. 

Weber,  Franz  Anton  von,  258. 

Wegeler,  Dr.  F.  G.,  196,  217, 

2l8,  219,    220,   229. 

Weigl,  Joseph,  57,  134,  181, 
261. 

Weimar,  Grand  Ducal  Theatre, 
134,  247 ;  Reflections  in,  241 
et  seq. ;  theatre  and  opera  in, 
245  et  seq. 

"  Wer  mit  Veraunft  betracht'," 
So. 

Wieland,  244. 

William  II.,  German  Emperor, 
232. 

Willmann,  singer,  and  Beetho- 
ven, 200. 

Wilson,  William,  United  States 
Senator,  193. 

Wilt,  Marie,  singer,  124,  146, 
154. 

Windsor  Chapel,  91. 

"  Woodman,  The,"  86. 

"  Worthy  is  the  Lamb,"  64. 

Wranitzky,  "Oberon,"  260. 

YORK,  Duchess  of,  63,  82,  84. 
York,  Duke  of,  84. 

ZAMPERELLI,  Dionigi,  3,14, 25. 
Zeno,  Apostolo,  32. 
"Zingara,"  31. 


277 


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